Long duration Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease.

The first patient was a woman hospitalized at the age of 43 years; she received the diagnosis of presenile dementia because of a progressive deterioration of her intellectual functions over an interval of 3 years. On admission there were no localizing neurological findings. During the ensuing years she became unable to speak and was no longer able to respond to commands. Death occurred at the age of 46 years from bronchopneumonia. The brain showed marked atrophy of the frontal lobes, moderate in the temporal lobes. The anterior horns of the lateral ventricles were greatly dilated. Microscopically cortical atrophy was severe, with marked depletion of neurons in involved regions. Lamination and polarity were not preserved. There was considerable increase of astrocytes and microglia, and focal sponginess was prominent. The hippocampus showed atrophy of Sommer's sector and subiculum. There were no neurofibrillary tangles and no argyrophilic plaques. The occipital sections showed little neuronal loss and no increased astrocytes or sponginess. The insulae showed neuronal loss and gliosis. There was bilateral atrophy of the caudate nuclei and globus pallidus adjacent to the dystrophic anterior limbs of the internal capsule. In the brain stem the frontopontine tracts were partially demyelinated and showed reactive gliosis. Ventral horns were atrophic with moderate glial reaction. In the second patient the microscopic changes were quite similar to those in Case 1, but there was more severe degeneration of the corticospinal tracts and the ventral horns of the spinal cord which showed considerable loss of neurons and degenerative changes in the remaining nerve cells and nerve fibers. There were many instances of axonal degeneration.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)