A case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease related to familial retinitis pigmentosa patients

Similarities between serological alterations and retinal degeneration occurring in natural and experimental CJD and in some forms of human retinal degeneration have recently been reported. In the present paper a family from an areal focal accumulation of CJD in Central Slovakia with 1 histopathologically verified case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and 2 case of retinitis pigmentosa is described. Neuropathological and epidemiological data obtained in investigated patients are discussed from the point of view of a possible relationship between the slow virus infections caused by unconventional agents and degenerative disease affecting the ocular system.