"Neuritic conglomerates" in the cerebral cortex of a patient with Creutzfeld-Jakob disease.

In the cerebral cortex of a patient with Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (CJD), we found peculiar glomeruloid or skein-like structures which have not previously been described. The patient was a 67-year-old man, whose clinical features and neuropathological findings were consistent with CJD. The glomeruloid or skein-like structures were distributed in the deep layers of the cortex and consisted of intricately entangled masses of thick argyrophilic fibers. These structures were immunostained with anti-neurofilament antibodies and were considered to have originated from neuronal cytoplasmic processes, most likely axons. The pathogenesis and pathological significance of these structures, which were tentatively termed "neuritic conglomerates," remains unclear. However they probably represent an overgrowth of the distal portion of axons and indicate the plasticity of the injured neurons.