PROTON MAGNETIC-RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY IN CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB-DISEASE

We studied two patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by in vivo prot on magnetic resonance spectroscopy and obtained spectra from an extrac t of biopsy tissue from a third patient. In vivo spectra from the two patients, 3 months and less than 1 month after symptom onset, revealed only minor changes. A second study of one of the patients 10 months a fter symptom onset found a decrease in N-acetylaspartate and other met abolites. Spectroscopy of the biopsy extract obtained 4 months after o nset of symptoms showed no reduction in metabolites measured by in viv o spectroscopy, in accord with quantitative pathology showing no overa ll neuronal loss. Changes in metabolites detectable by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy are not an early feature of this disease.