BMJ 1998;316:593-594 ( 21 February )

Papers

Single photon emission computed tomography in the identification of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: case reports

See editorial by Pocchiari and p 577

Rajith de Silva,  James Patterson, medical physicist, ^a Donald Hadley, consultant, ^a Aline Russell, senior registrar, ^b Martin Turner, consultant, ^c Martin Zeidler, research fellow. ^d

^a Department of Neuroradiology, Southern General Hospital, ^b Department of Electrophysiology, Southern General Hospital, ^c Woodilee Psychiatric Hospital, Lenzie G66 3UG, ^d National CJD Surveillance Unit, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh EH4 2XU

Correspondence to: Dr de Silva

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

New variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease may be associated with exposure to the causative agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.¹ Currently, a reliable diagnosis is possible only after neuropathological examination of the brain, which is risky for patients and diagnosticians.² The sensitivity and specificity of recently developed techniques are not known for new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and they are available only in highly specialised centres. ^{3 4}

Single photon emission computed tomography is a readily available neuroimaging technique that uses intravenously administered radioactive ligands to map different aspects of brain function.

We report the findings on this technique using the cerebral perfusion tracer hexamethylpropyleneamineoxime (HMPAO) in two patients with neuropathologically confirmed new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

	Patients, methods, and results

Case 1 A 28 year old woman developed paraesthesia of her right arm, then right leg, and later both left arm and leg. Six months later she complained of weight loss and fatigue, and had mild ataxia. After 1 year, speech, memory, . . . [Full text of this article]
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