Early-Onset Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Mimicking Immune-Mediated Encephalitis

The objective of this study is to explore the clinical, radiological, and pathological manifestations of a rare subtype of prion disease and their implication for differential diagnosis in case of an early onset neuropsychiatric deterioration.

We discuss a patients' clinical history, as well as the string of investigations and symptomatological evolution that finally led to a pathological diagnosis.

Our patient had the extremely rare VV1 type sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD). We explain the differential diagnosis of progressive encephalomyelitis with rigidity and myoclonus and its implications for treatment.

sCJD, especially the VV1 subtype, can present at an early age with an insidious psychiatric onset. Classical findings of prion disease-14-3-3 protein, PSWC on electroencephalography, and magnetic resonance imaging patterns-are not always present. The presence of neural autoantibodies does not always implicate pathogenicity in the presence of other neurological/neurodegenerative conditions.