M. A. Macleod

TL;DR: Diagnostic criteria for nvCJD have been formulated, which have a high sensitivity and specificity and over 70% of cases had bilateral pulvinar high signal on magnetic resonance brain scanning.

TL;DR: CSF protein 14–3–3 is not as useful a marker for vCJD as it is for sporadic CJD but as concentrations may be increased in many forms of non-CJD dementia, this may limit its usefulness as a diagnostic test.

TL;DR: The authors investigated whether regional incidences of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) were correlated with regional dietary data and found that vCJD incidence was higher in the north of Great Britain than the south.

TL;DR: Early clinical diagnosis in vCJD is not possible in the great majority of cases because of non-specific initial symptoms, and once neurological signs develop, a diagnosis is usually made promptly but this is often at a relatively advanced stage of illness.

TL;DR: Sensory symptoms are a prominent feature of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, occurring in nearly two thirds of cases and may help distinguish variant from sporadic CJD, but the recognised MRI changes in vCJD do not correlate with the presence or absence of sensory symptoms.