Barriers to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease autopsies, California

Janice K Louie; Shilpa S Gavali; Ermias D Belay; Rosalie Trevejo; Lucinda H Hammond; Lawrence B Schonberger; Duc J Vugia

doi:10.3201/eid1009.040066

Barriers to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease autopsies, California

Emerg Infect Dis. 2004 Sep;10(9):1677-80. doi: 10.3201/eid1009.040066.

Authors

Janice K Louie¹, Shilpa S Gavali, Ermias D Belay, Rosalie Trevejo, Lucinda H Hammond, Lawrence B Schonberger, Duc J Vugia

Affiliation

¹ California Emerging Infections Program, Richmond, California, USA. jlouie@dhs.ca.gov

Abstract

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) surveillance relies on autopsy and neuropathologic evaluation. The 1990-2000 CJD autopsy rate in California was 21%. Most neurologists were comfortable diagnosing CJD (83%), but few pathologists felt comfortable diagnosing CJD (35%) or performing autopsy (29%). Addressing obstacles to autopsy is necessary to improve CJD surveillance.

MeSH terms

Autopsy* / statistics & numerical data
California / epidemiology
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / diagnosis*
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / epidemiology
Data Collection
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Neurology
Pathology
Physicians
Population Surveillance