Obligatory medical device diagnostics.
- Encephalogram (EEG; recording of brain electrical activity) – should be used as a basic diagnostic; changes can be seen in approximately 70% of sporadic cases
- Computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging of the skull (cranial CT or.cCT/cranial MRI or cMRI) – can secure pathological signs (cortical atrophy; spondiform changes) in more than two-thirds of cases of sporadic CJD; in the new variant of CJD (nvCJD) ), MRI is the only investigative modality that can secure signs. [MRI: hyperintense basal ganglia and cortical signal increases in FLAIR (“fluid attenuated inversion recovery”)/DWI (“diffusion weighted imaging”) reinforce suspected clinical diagnosis; highest sensitivity in detecting hyperintense signal changes in striatum (caudate nucleus and putamen), thalamus, and/or cortex].
