DIAGNOSES AND DISCUSSION OF CHALLENGING CLINICAL CASE NO. 09/2001
| Very few diseases cause rapid dementia, noticeable in a period of weeks. Among them are depression, metabolic encephalopathy, encephalitis, poisoning, Binswanger’s disease (white-matter infarction), and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. (Alzheimer’s disease has a nore insidious onset.) Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a slow-virus infection that causes a spongoiform change in the cerebral cortex; it is characterized by rapid deementia, startle myoclonus, and, frequently, signs of occipital and cerebellar disease. CT scan and cerebrospinal fluid examination are nearly always normal in affected persosns; after a period of time electroencephalography shows rapid, synchronous sharp waves, a diagnoistic finding |