Differential Diagnosis of Jakob-Creutzfeldt Disease

Abstract

There are often long delays between the time that a patient with sporadic Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease (sCJD) first presents to the physician and the time that a correct diagnosis is made. Sporadic CJD is misdiagnosed for many reasons, including the variability of early symptoms and signs,^1-4 the variability in disease duration, and lack of recognition of this condition in the medical community.⁵ Depending on where prions accumulate in the brain, the clinical presentation can be variable^6,7 and sCJD is easily mistaken for other neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer disease, corticobasal degeneration, and dementia with Lewy bodies.^8-10