Journal of neurology
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Journal of neurology · May 2014
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyDiagnostic profiles of patients with late-onset Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease differ from those of younger Creutzfeldt-Jakob patients: a historical cohort study using data from the German National Reference Center.
In contrast to other neurodegenerative diseases, sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) is rarely diagnosed in patients older than 75 years. Data describing the characteristics of sCJD in the very old are rare and inconclusive. Therefore, a historical cohort study was designed to evaluate clinical, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of this group. ⋯ We demonstrated for the first time that patients with late-onset sCJD differ from younger sCJD patients with respect to MRI profiles and initial clinical presentation, but not among CSF markers. Misclassification of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease cases in patients older than 75 years seems likely due to atypical clinical and radiological presentation. This might contribute to lower sCJD incidence rates in this age group.