Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

What it is

A rare sporadic human prion disease characterized by rapidly progressive cognitive impairment in combination with variable neurologic signs and symptoms including myoclonus, visual or cerebellar problems, pyramidal or extrapyramidal features, or akinetic mutism. Brain imaging may show high signal intensity in caudate, putamen, and/or cortical regions, and a typical EEG pattern consisting of generalized periodic sharp wave complexes is observed in many cases. The disease is invariably fatal within less than two years. Neuropathologic examination reveals deposition of abnormal prion protein in brain tissue, as well as spongiform change and massive neuronal loss and gliosis.

Key facts

Prevalence

<1 / 1 000 000

Age of onset

Adult, Elderly

Inheritance

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.

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