Coexistence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and Alzheimer's disease in the same patient.
We report the case of a 73-year-old patient in whom a diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, suggested by the clinical course, was verified by the neuropathologic finding of widespread spongiform change and astrogliosis, the presence of proteinase-resistant protein in brain extracts, and the experimental transmission of spongiform encephalopathy to primates inoculated with brain tissue. However, neuropathologic examination also revealed a profusion of senile and neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that reacted with antibody to the amyloid beta-protein characteristic of Alzheimer's disease, but not with antibody to the scrapie amyloid protein characteristic of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Brown
P
P
Laboratory of CNS Studies, NINDS, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Jannotta
F
F
Gibbs
C J
CJ
Baron
H
H
Guiroy
D C
DC
Gajdusek
D C
DC
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans