NR ALDX
AU Sternbach,G.; Dibble,C.L.; Varon,J.
TI From Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to the mad cow epidemic
QU Journal of Emergency Medicine 1997 Sep-Oct; 15(5): 701-5
KI J Emerg Med. 1997 Sep-Oct;15(5):721-3. PMID: 9348066
PT historical article; journal article
AB Hans-Gerhard Creutzfeldt and Alfons Jakob independently authored clinical and pathologic descriptions of a new syndrome in the 1920s. This syndrome, which subsequently came to be named after them, was characterized by dementia, motor and coordination abnormalities, a fatal course, and pathologic findings of diffuse spongiform neuronal degeneration. Although it appeared for many years to be little more than a medical curiosity, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease attained widespread attention by its pathologic similarity to kuru and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, "mad cow disease." Because there are sporadic, familial, and iatrogenic forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, it is considered to have both genetic and infectious aspects. Although its causation has for some time been ascribed to "slow viruses," the etiology of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is currently thought to be due to prions, small proteinaceous infectious particles that have genetic encoding. The debate regarding whether the appearance of atypical Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease can be linked to the epidemic of "mad cow disease" is currently unresolved.
MH Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Animal; Cattle; Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome/*history/physiopathology; *Disease Outbreaks; Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform/*epidemiology/physiopathology; Great Britain/epidemiology; History of Medicine, 20th Cent.; Human; Kuru/physiopathology; Middle Age; Prions
AD Emergency Medicine Service, Stanford University Medical Center, CA 94305, USA
SP englisch
PO USA