Neurophysiology in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Introduction. Neurophysiological studies conducted in subjects who it is suspected are suffering from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) are usually aimed at searching for what is called a typical EEG. However, the EEG is a dynamic test and therefore subject to variations in time. Furthermore, there are other kinds of neurophysiological tests that may also be of interest, and the lack of typical traces in the new variant of the disease forces us to explore other diagnostic approaches. Method. We performed a clinical-EEG correlation in the course of the evolution of the disease, in which we observed a significant variability throughout the different stages. We then review the neurophysiological studies that have been conducted on CJD, in which shortcomings and important discrepancies can be seen. Conclusion. EEG has proved to be a fundamental element in CJD probability diagnosis. It is also found that sleep and waking records, obtaining series of EEGs, the detection of poligraphic changes related with variations in the degree of consciousness and, lastly, studies conducted by means of other neurophysiological techniques associated with clinical data will all undoubtedly enable us to achieve higher efficiency in diagnosis.