Eye Testing May Aid Early Diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Eye examinations may aid clinicians in the diagnosis of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (sCJD), results of a small postmortem study show, according to a report in Medscape.
In an evaluation of the eyes and brains of 11 sCJD patients, investigators found prion seeding in all eyes they tested, finding the highest levels of the infectious protein in the retina.
“In more than half the cases, prion seeding activities in retina were remarkably high and approached levels in brain, consistent with efficient prion conversion in neural tissue,” the investigators, led by Christina J. Sigurdson, DVM, PhD, professor of pathology, director of women in health sciences, and co-director of the Center for Veterinary Sciences and Comparative Medicine at UC San Diego, write.