Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in a recipient of human pituitary-derived gonadotrophin.

A forty-year-old female presented with an unsteady gait 13 years after receiving an eight-month course of human pituitary-derived gonadotrophin injections as treatment for infertility. Over the next ten months the patient subsequently developed generalised myoclonic jerks and dementia and finally died. Neuropathological examination revealed changes in the brain consistent with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. This is the first reported case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in a recipient of human derived gonadotrophin.