BMJ 2004;328:1279 (29 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7451.1279
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Higher numbers than previously predicted could be incubating vCJD
Zosia Kmietowicz
London
More people in the United Kingdom than previously thought could be incubating the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), suggests new research.
An analysis of nearly 13 000 anonymised appendix and tonsil samples has found that prion proteins associated with vCJD had accumulated in three of them.
However, only one of the samples showed a pattern of prion accumulation that resembled that seen in tissue of known vCJD cases. The other two had different patterns of accumulation and their significance is uncertain, although they cannot be dismissed as unimportant, say researchers.
Extrapolating these findings to the UK population most at risk of developing vCJD—those aged between 10 and 30 years—the researchers estimate that 237 people in every million, or a total of 3808 people—could potentially be carrying markers for the disease (95% CI, 49-692 per million).
The study was published online as an "early view" paper (ahead of the printed version) on 21 May in the Journal of Pathology (doi:10.1002/path.1580; www.interscience.wiley.com/thejournalofpathology).
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