Diagnosing some neurologic diseases may now use a skin biopsy, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or CJD is a rare neurological condition that may initially look like dementia and that is ultimately fatal. It’s caused by something called a prion, which is smaller than a virus. Now a new study demonstrates that a skin biopsy done in two or more different places can make the diagnosis. Ted Dawson, a neurologist at Johns Hopkins, says this test could make diagnosing CJD much easier. 

Dawson: It gives you the opportunity to make the diagnosis of prion disease without the need to do a lumbar tap. Not every patient will agree to a spinal tap, not every family will agree to have their loved one have a spinal tap but it's important to know in these diseases whether the individual has pretty profound neurologic disorder, whether that's due to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or related prion, in that those disorders are highly infectious.   :33

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.