Definition of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Word Origin1930s: named after H. G. Creutzfeldt (1885–1964) and A. Jakob (1882–1927), the German neurologists who first described cases of the disease in 1920–1. Creutzfeldt is credited with the first description of the disease in 1920, although the case is atypical by current diagnostic criteria; a year later Jakob described four cases, at least two of whom had clinical features suggestive of CJD as it is currently described.