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Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease

Tainted Brain Grafts Fatal 16 Years Later

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease afflicts only about one person per million

and is most often found in patients 55 to 65 years of age.

A T L A N T A, Nov. 14 — Patients who received contaminated grafts

during surgery have developed fatal Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease as long as 16 years

later.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 61 cases of

Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD) have been linked worldwide to dura mater grafts

manufactured by a German company since 1979.

One of 43 graft-related CJD cases in Japan involved a patient

who developed the rapidly progressive fatal illness 16 years and one month after

receiving a dura mater graft, the agency said. The average among the 43 patients

was approximately seven years.

" The maximum latency period from the time of exposure to the

time patients had onset of CJD was 16 years, " CDC epidemiologist Dr. Ermias

Belay said.

The German manufacturer, B. Braun Melsungen AG, began screening

donors for the brain-destroying illness in 1987 and stopped mixing dura obtained

from different cadavers in its product, called lyodura, Belay said. The product

substitutes for the tough fibrous membrane covering the brain or spinal cord,

but it has not been licensed for marketing or distribution in the United States.

" There is always this inherent risk that CJD could be

transmitted through this kind of product, especially if the dura mater is

obtained from a patient who has developed CJD or who subsequently develops CJD, "

Belay said.

Fear of Mad Cow Disease

Scientists have suggested an association between a variant form of

CJD reported in the United Kingdom and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE),

the so-called " mad cow disease " that has infected about a million cows in

Britain since 1985. Both illnesses belong to the same group of degenerative

neurological diseases.

No cases of the variant CJD or BSE have been found in the United

States. The CDC has said there is no direct evidence that BSE can spread to

humans.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease afflicts only about one person per

million and is most often found in patients 55 to 65 years of age. The CDC said

10 percent to 15 percent of CJD cases are inherited.

A University of Kentucky researcher suggested earlier this year

that eating squirrel brains could cause CJD. Cases have also been linked to the

use of contaminated corneal transplants, electrode implants and the receipt of

human growth hormone, the CDC said.

Copyright 1997 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not

be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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