A descriptive analysis of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob cases in Vietnam: 31 patients from four tertiary care centers

Background: Accurate diagnosis of sCJD remains challenging in developing countries such as Vietnam, as clinical and research efforts focus on treatable diseases. Several cases of sCJD have been diagnosed in Vietnam but data from formal analyses are lacking. This is the first systematic analysis of patients with sCJD in Vietnam. Methods: This was a systematic retrospective review of medical records from patients with probable sCJD (N = 31) seen between April 2021 to April 2024 at four tertiary care centers. Clinical, laboratory, neuroimaging, and EEG findings were included in the analysis. Results: Data from 16 men and 15 women with sCJD were analyzed. The average age of onset was 63.4 years (range 50-83 years). Twenty-one of the patients had died after a mean survival of 7.6 months (range 3-20 months). All patients initially presented with rapidly progressive dementia. Other associated symptoms included myoclonus (77 %), extrapyramidal symptoms (80 %), pyramidal symptoms (58 %), akinetic mutism (55 %), visual disturbance (45 %), and cerebellar ataxia (32 %). Neuroimaging revealed abnormal fluidattenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) sequences in 28/31 patients. EEG revealed periodic sharp wave complexes (PSWCs) in 26/31 patients. Only 12 patients had been tested for 14-3-3 protein in CSF and all were positive. Conclusions: Clinical, neuroimaging, laboratory, and EEG features are consistent with global findings.