CJD can be detected in skeletal muscle of affected patients.

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CJD Prions a Surgery Risk?

 

 

So much for uninfected steaks!!!

 

 

 

 

Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2003;290:3057.

Researchers from Switzerland have discovered that prions, the hardy infectious

proteins responsible for Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), can be detected in

skeletal muscle of affected patients. This finding, they said, suggests that

surgical equipment used on patients with CJD could subsequently transmit the

virus to others because the sterilization procedures routinely used for surgical

implements do not destroy prions (N Engl J Med. 2003;349:1812-1820).

Using an extremely sensitive prion detection method, the researchers examined

brain tissue and extraneural organs of 36 patients with sporadic CJD. In

addition to detecting prions in the brain tissue of all patients, they found

prions in 10 of 28 spleen specimens and in 8 of 22 samples of skeletal muscles.

Neurological examinations of patients in the prodromal stages of sporadic CJD

often include electromyography and muscle biopsies. Thus, the researchers said,

finding prions in skeletal muscle of patients with the disorder " reinforces

calls for the use of single-use needle electrodes and of special protocols for

the sterilization of surgical instruments used for biopsies. "

The article this news story refers to was published in the New England Journal

of Medicine, vol. 349, pages1812-1820

Joan Stephenson

Joan Stephenson, PhD

Editor, Medical News & Perspectives

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

515 N. State St.

Chicago, IL 60610

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joan_stephenson

 

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/290/23/3057?etoc

 

 

 

 

karl theis jr

 

 

http://groups.msn.com/exposureofthetruth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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