Analysis index

Will be made available on request.

Suspicion of disease, disease and death have to be reported to the responsible health department by the treating physician, giving the patient’s name. The mandatory reporting especially covers the detection of the BSE-associated new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob-disease (vCJD), which has not been demonstrated in Germany so far.

Currently it is only possible to diagnose the hereditary familial CJD by doing a dna-analysis. The two other types of CJD, the sporadic and the new (BSE-induced) CJD-variants, can only be identified by clinical presentation. A definite diagnosis is only possible after death. The conventional, sporadic CJD (frequency 1/million) typically presents between the ages of 55 to 65. The clinical presentation initially consists of coordination difficulties, rigor-like muscle tone increases or other extrapyramidal signs, akinetic mutism and paresis as well as fast progressing dementia. Most patients decease within half a year. The BSE-induced new CJD variant can occur at any age; however, it usually affects young patients. First signs are depression, forgetfulness or aggression. After that, mental and physical decline follows. So far, there are only indirect markers in the liquor pointing towards CJD: NSE, S100-protein, Pr 14-3-. Please refer to www.rki.de