Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome

What it is

A rare inherited human prion disease characterized by adult onset of slowly progressive cerebellar ataxia, with dementia developing relatively late in the disease course (classic ataxic phenotype). Patients may present with gait disturbances and frequent falls, dysarthria, dysphagia, nystagmus, dysmetry, and eventually pancerebellar syndrome, myoclonus, spasticity, severe dementia, and mutism. The disease is invariably fatal after five years on average. Neuropathological hallmark is the presence of numerous multicentric prion protein plaques in the cerebral and cerebellar cortex.

Key facts

Prevalence

<1 / 1 000 000 (annual incidence)

Age of onset

Adult

Inheritance

Autosomal dominant, Not applicable

Classified as

Disease

Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.

Signs and symptoms

These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.

Gene

ICD-10 codes

ICD-10 has no distinct code for most rare diseases, so many are filed under the nearest available one. A shared code identifies the group, not this disease — the ORPHAcode above is what identifies it.

Related health topics

Reached through the ICD-10 categories this disease is filed under, so these describe the broader group rather than this disease specifically.

Cross-references