title: Preclinical Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease discovered at autopsy in a human growth hormone recipient.
abstract: An adolescent girl with idiopathic hypothalamic dysfunction and hypopituitarism was treated with human growth hormone between 1969 and 1979, dying of parainfluenza pneumonia 2 months after her last hormone treatment. Although she had no signs of progressive neurologic disease, reexamination of autopsy material revealed a focus of spongiform change and astrogliosis in the corpus striatum. Thus, this growth hormone recipient, who died of intercurrent infection, was unexpectedly found to be in an early, preclinical phase of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center, New York, NY.
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: New
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Temeck
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Owens
authors.forename: E T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Hedley-Whyte
authors.forename: E P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Richardson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001344:Autopsy; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D013006:Growth Hormone / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D007018:Hypopituitarism / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D013006:Growth Hormone