[Space-occupying cerebral process as a clinical misdiagnosis in subacute spongioid encephalopathy (Jakob-Creutzfeldt syndrome). Clinical-morphological report on 3 cases].

This is a report on three cases of subacute spongioid encephalopathy (Jakob-Creutzfeldt syndrome) where an extended cerebral process had been diagnosed clinically. However, a final and correct diagnosis could not be established until after the postmortem examination. The patients were 1 woman and 2 men; the duration of disease was between 5 weeks and 2 1/2 years. In 2 of the patients, initial pseudoneurasthenic complaints were followed, in the further course of disease, by manifestations of an organic psychosyndrome accompanied by neurological and, moreparticularly, coordination disorders. The neuropathological conditions manifested themselves especially in the frontal and occipital cortices as spongioid states, astroglial changes, ganglion-cell failures and pathobioses.