CJD

A guide for patients and carers

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Are other conditions easily mistaken for CJD?

CJD is extremely rare.All the problems associated with it also occur in other less serious, potentially treatable and more common conditions.These need to be ruled out before a CJD diagnosis is made, and doctors will be very careful to do this, using the tests described above.
As mentioned, definite diagnosis requires brain examination and therefore can only be made following brain biopsy, which is rarely carried out, or only after the patient dies. However, doctors can usually make a very confident diagnosis on the basis of signs, symptoms and test results.
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