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Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (sporadic + creutzfeldt-jakob_disease)
Selected AbstractsCreutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in the Obstetric PatientJOURNAL OF OBSTETRIC, GYNECOLOGIC & NEONATAL NURSING, Issue 5 2005Randa Sperling Recent reports have indicated the presence of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States. This disease can occur as a rare, sporadic disease with no recognizable pattern of transmission or as a familial disease associated with prion protein gene mutations. This article discusses the presence of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in a woman who became pregnant early in the course of the disease and subsequent care pre- and postdelivery. [source] MM2-cortical-type sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease with early stage cerebral cortical pathology presenting with a rapidly progressive clinical courseNEUROPATHOLOGY, Issue 6 2008Yoshiki Niimi We report the case of a 67-year-old man with MM2-cortical-type sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) with a rapidly progressive clinical course of 5 months. Initial symptoms were progressive memory disturbance and dementia. MRI revealed high signal-intensity lesions on diffusion-weighted images in the bilateral frontal and occipital cortices. Myoclonus and periodic sharp-wave complexes on the electroencephalogram were observed in the early disease stage. The clinical diagnosis was typical sCJD. Neuropathologic examination at autopsy showed widespread, characteristic cerebral neocortical involvement with large confluent vacuole-type spongiform change. Spongiform degeneration was also evident in the striatum and medial thalamus. In the cerebellar cortex, slight depletion of Purkinje neurons was evident without spongiform change in the molecular layer or apparent neuron loss in the granule cell layer. The inferior olivary nucleus showed slight hypertrophic astrocytosis without neuron loss. Prion protein (PrP) immunostaining showed widespread, characteristic perivacuolar-type PrP deposits with irregular plaque-like PrP deposits in the cerebral neocortex, striatum and medial thalamus. We believe this patient showed early-stage cerebral cortical pathology of MM2-cortical-type sCJD, which may provide clues regarding the pathologic progression of this rare sCJD subtype. Although MM2-cortical-type sCJD generally shows slow progression without myoclonus or periodic sharp-wave complexes, the present patient showed a rapidly progressive clinical course similar to that of MM1-type sCJD. [source] Enhanced Aquaporin-4 immunoreactivity in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseaseNEUROPATHOLOGY, Issue 4 2007Yasushi Iwasaki Aquaporin-4 (AQP-4) is a water channel protein located on the plasma membrane of astrocytes and is regulated under various conditions. In the present study, a series of brains with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) were investigated to determine the possible contribution of AQP-4 in the development of sCJD pathology. Six cases of subacute spongiform encephalopathy (SSE) and four cases of panencephalopathic (PE)-type sCJD were included. Increased AQP-4 immunoreactivity compared to that in controls was observed in all sCJD patients, particularly in the cerebral neocortex and cerebellar cortex. AQP-4 immunoreactivity was present in the cell bodies and processes of protoplasmic astrocytes in SSE and around cell bodies and processes of hypertrophic astrocytes in PE-type sCJD. Analysis of serial sections showed the development of sCJD pathology, particularly in neocortical lesions, as follows: PrP deposition; spongiform change and gliosis; enhanced staining for AQP-4; hypertrophic astrocytosis; and neuronal loss and tissue rarefaction. Strong AQP-4 immunoreactivity was present in burnt-out lesions such as those of status spongiosus. These results indicate that increased AQP-4 expression in sCJD is an early pathologic event and appears to remain until the late disease stage. We suggest that increased expression of AQP-4 is a pathologic feature of sCJD. [source] Immunohistochemical studies of the PrPCJD deposition in Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseaseNEUROPATHOLOGY, Issue 2 2000Shinichiro Tanaka The PrPCJD deposition in eight brains of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) was examined immunohistochemically using both hydrolytic autoclaving and formic acid pretreatment in order to understand the pathogenesis of CJD. Synaptic-type PrP immunoreactivity was revealed in the gray matter in all cases and had a tendency to be weaker in devastated areas in cases with a longer duration of illness. However, in one particular case with numerous prion plaques, the degeneration was relatively mild while PrPCJD immunoreactivity was intense despite the longest duration of illness among the examined cases. Deep layer accentuation of PrPCJD immunoreactivity was observed in the cerebral cortices in most cases. This staining pattern, however, disappeared in a burnt-out lesion exhibiting status spongiosus. The granular layer was damaged mostly in the cerebellum of the advanced cases. PrPCJD and synaptophysin immunoreactivities decreased as the tissue degeneration progressed. Interestingly, the Purkinje cells had no positivity for PrPCJD in all cases, although the neurons in relatively preserved cerebellum showed apparent positivity for synaptophysin. In the Ammon's horn and subiculum the neurons were well preserved despite the marked immunoreactivity for PrPCJD in all cases, although some cases demonstrated severe spongiform change. Approximately half of the cases showed intracytoplasmic inclusion body-like immunoreactivity for PrPCJD in neurons of the dentate nucleus. These findings suggest that PrPCJD deposition may be an event that precedes neuronal degeneration evolving from deeper layers of the cerebral cortex. Although the Ammon's horn and subiculum showed striking PrPCJD deposition and spongiform change, neuronal loss did not take place, suggesting that deposited PrPCJD itself seems not to be directly harmful to the neurons. Some investigators have assumed that microglia activated by PrPCJD plays an important role in neuronal degeneration. Considering this, we speculate that microglia in the Ammon's horn and subiculum may have a unique characteristic of not responding to PrPCJD. [source] Identification of polymorphisms in the ovine Shadow of prion protein (SPRN) gene and assessment of their effect on promoter activity and susceptibility for classical scrapieANIMAL GENETICS, Issue 2 2010E. Lampo Summary Shadow of prion protein (SPRN) is an interesting candidate gene thought to be involved in prion pathogenesis. In humans, an association has already been discovered between mutations in SPRN and the incidence of variant and sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. However, in sheep, the effect of mutations in SPRN is largely unknown. Therefore, we analysed the presence of mutations in the entire ovine SPRN gene, their association with scrapie susceptibility and their effect on SPRN promoter activity. In total, 26 mutations were found: seven in the promoter region, four in intron 1, seven in the coding sequence and eight in the 3, untranslated region. The mutations detected in the coding sequence and the promoter region were subsequently analysed in more detail. In the coding sequence, a polymorphism causing a deletion of two alanines was found to be associated with susceptibility for classical scrapie in sheep. Furthermore, a functional analysis of deletion constructs of the ovine SPRN promoter revealed that the region 464 to 230 bp upstream of exon 1 (containing a putative AP-2 and putative Sp1 binding sites) is of functional importance for SPRN transcription. Six mutations in the SPRN promoter were also found to alter the promoter activity in vitro. However, no association between any of these promoter mutations and susceptibility for classical scrapie was found. [source] Clinical diagnosis and differential diagnosis of CJD and vCJD,APMIS, Issue 1 2002Inga Zerr The most widely distributed form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, typically affects patients in their sixties. Rapidly progressive dementia is usually followed by focal neurological signs and typically myoclonus. The disease duration in sporadic CJD is shorter than in variant CJD (6 months and 14 months, respectively). The clinical diagnosis in sporadic CJD is supported by the detection of periodic sharp and slow wave complexes in the electroencephalogram, hyperintense signals in basal ganglia on magnetic resonance imaging and elevated levels of neuronal proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid (such as 14-3-3). In contrast to the sporadic form, hyperintense signals in the posterior thalamus ("pulvinar sign") are seen in variant CJD. Following recent developments in diagnostic premortem techniques, clinical criteria for probable sporadic and probable variant CJD were established. Clinicopathological studies on sporadic CJD revealed different phenotypes which are characterized by neuropathological lesion profile, clinical syndrome, codon 129 genotype and type of proteinase K-resistant core of the prion protein. Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia are the most frequent differential diagnoses in sporadic CJD in elderly patients, whereas chronic inflammatory disorders of the central nervous system have to be considered in younger patients. [source] Striatal [123I] FP-CIT SPECT demonstrates dopaminergic deficit in a sporadic case of Creutzfeldt,Jakob diseaseACTA NEUROLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 2 2009M. Ragno Background,,, The frequent occurrence of movement disorders such as myoclonus, parkinsonism and dystonia, strongly suggests an involvement of the dopaminergic system in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), but this issue has not been specifically addressed yet. Methods,,, We report a patient who after a sub-acute focal clinical onset, developed the full clinical picture of probable sCJD. Given the early unilateral right extrapyramidal rigidity, the patient was assessed by single-photon emission computed tomography of the dopamine transporter (DAT) using [123I] FP-CIT. Results,,, DAT-scan demonstrated reduced values of presynaptic receptorial trace in the putamen, particularly on the left side, consistent with functional putaminal dopaminergic presynaptic alteration. Conclusions,,, The present observation emphasizes the possible role of DAT imaging studies in the investigation of the pathogenesis of movement disorders in CJD. [source] |