Symptoms

Diagnosis

The duration of CJD from the onset of symptoms to the inevitable death is usually one year; however, shorter duration periods of several months are common, and longer duration periods of two or more years have been noted, usually in the familial form and with an earlier age of onset.

The initial stage
In the initial stage symptoms are insomnia, depression, confusion, personality and behavioral changes, strange physical sensations, and problems with memory, coordination and sight.

As the disease advances
the patient experiences a rapidly, progressive dementia and in most cases, involuntary and irregular jerking movements known as myoclonus.
Problems with language, sight, muscular weakness, and coordination worsen. The patient may appear startled and become rigid.

In the final stage
of the disease, the patient loses all mental and physical functions. The patient may lapse into a coma and usually dies from an infection like pneumonia precipitated by the bedridden, unconscious state.

Diagnosis

At present there is no way of telling whether you are incubating the disease. Scientists have developed a tonsil test which if you are showing symptoms will confirm whether you have vCJD. The experiment has not yet been used widely enough to become accepted practice - but scientists believe it soon will be. Before the introduction of the tonsil test, the only confirmation of vCJD came with a brain autopsy - generally after death.

A diagnosis of CJD should be considered when an adult patient develops a rapid dementia and myoclonus.
Confirming a diagnosis of CJD is very difficult. No particular test or investigative procedure helps in confirming the suspected diagnosis. At present Brain biopsy on the patient can be of help but it also can give false negative result if the biopsied area was not involved in the disease process.
MRI or CT Scan are normal. The EEG often shows a characteristic abnormal pattern, typically observed in later stages of the disease, but the EEG does not confirm a CJD diagnosis.
Another way to diagnose the disease is to identify the prion protein and transfering the disease to animal.

Diseases with which CJD may be mistaken for are a variety of psychological illnesses and other neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease, Pick's Disease, Huntington's Disease, cerebral hematomas and vascular irregularities

At the present time, there is no known effective treatment or cure for CJD. The disease is inevitably fatal.

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