Our Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Main Article provides a comprehensive look at the who, what, when and how of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Definition of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD): A degenerative, invariably fatal brain disorder. It affects about one person in every one million people per year worldwide; in the United States there are about 200 cases per year. CJD usually appears in later life and runs a rapid course. Typically, onset of symptoms occurs about age 60, and about 90% of patients die within a year. In the early stages of disease, patients may have failing memory, behavioral changes, lack of coordination and visual disturbances. As the illness progresses, mental deterioration becomes pronounced and involuntary movements, blindness, weakness of extremities, and coma may occur.
There are three major categories of CJD:
CJD belongs to a family of human and animal diseases known as the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Spongiform refers to the characteristic appearance of infected brains, which become filled with holes until they resemble sponges under a microscope. CJD is the most common of the known human TSEs. Other human TSEs include kuru, fatal familial insomnia (FFI), and Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease (GSS). Kuru was identified in people of an isolated tribe in Papua New Guinea and has now almost disappeared. Fatal familial insomnia and GSS are extremely rare hereditary diseases, found in just a few families around the world. Other TSEs are found in specific kinds of animals. These include bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which is found in cows and often referred to as "mad cow" disease, scrapie, which affects sheep and goats, mink encephalopathy, and feline encephalopathy. Similar diseases including chronic wasting disease (CWD) occur in elk, deer, and exotic zoo animals.
Symptoms: CJD is a rapidly progressive dementia. Initially, patients experience problems with muscular coordination; personality changes, including impaired memory, judgment, and thinking; and impaired vision. People with the disease also may experience insomnia, depression, or unusual sensations. CJD does not cause a fever or other flu-like symptoms. As the illness progresses, the patients' mental impairment becomes severe. They often develop involuntary muscle jerks called myoclonus, and they may go blind. They eventually lose the ability to move and speak and enter a coma. Pneumonia and other infections often occur in these patients and can lead to death.
There are several known variants of CJD. These variants differ somewhat in the symptoms and course of the disease. For example, a variant form of the disease -- called new variant or variant (nv-CJD or v-CJD), described in Great Britain and France -- begins primarily with psychiatric symptoms, affects younger patients than other types of CJD, and has a longer than usual duration from onset of symptoms to death. Another variant, called the panencephalopathic form, occurs primarily in Japan and has a relatively long course, with symptoms often progressing for several years. CJD causes unique changes in brain tissue which can be seen at autopsy.
Diagnosis: There is currently no single diagnostic test for CJD. When CJD is suspected, the first concern is to rule out treatable forms of dementia such as encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) or chronic meningitis. A neurological examination and spinal tap are often performed to rule out more common causes of dementia. An electroencephalogram (EEG) to record the brain's electrical pattern can be particularly valuable because it shows a specific type of abnormality in CJD. Computerized tomography (CT) of the brain can help rule out the possibility that the symptoms result from other problems such as stroke or a brain tumor. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans also can reveal characteristic patterns of brain degeneration that can help diagnose CJD.
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