Study examines diagnosing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Can the diagnosis of the human prion disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) be made better by using samples of cerebrospinal fluid and nasal swabbing?

A new article published online by JAMA Neurology examined an algorithm for accurate and early diagnosis of CJD using a particular lab test on cerebrospinal fluid samples, nasal swab samples or both.

Gianluigi Zanusso, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Verona, Italy, and his coauthors report the diagnostic algorithm had 100 percent sensitivity (correctly identifying those with a disease) and 100 percent specificity (correctly identifying those without a disease) for 61 cases of sporadic CJD compared with 71 patients with non-prion disease.

For more details and to read the full study, please visit the For The Media website. An audio interview with the authors also is available for preview there.