Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) belongs to prion diseases (transmissible spongiform encephalopathies). It’s a progressive, fatal and untreatable neurodegenerative disease. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is caused by the pathological prion protein (scrapie, PrPSc) that accumulates in the central nervous system and other tissues. Symptoms of the disease include: rapidly progressing dementia, speach impairment and blurred vision, involuntary muscle movements e.g. myoclonus, ataxia, paresis or problems of balance and co-ordination. The direct cause of death is mostly pneumonia. The incubation period may vary from a few months to several years, death occurs over a few weeks or months after the onset of clinical symptoms. According to the current criteria, histopathological verification is mandatory for definitive diagnosis for a CJD. The neuropathological features of CJD are characterized by a triad of spongiosis, astrocytosis and neuronal loss. It’s difficult to diagnose CJD because of the lack of a biospecific marker for CJD and not always characteristic clinical signs, which require differentiation with other disorders associated with dementia. This article is a short review of the recently published data on detection methods.

prion, prion disease, diagnosis, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies