Is tinnitus a symptom of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or New Variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease in humans?
Is tinnitus isolated to one ear a symptom of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or New Variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease in humans?
Any and all help much appreciated. Thanks.
P.S. - For the record, Creutzfeld-Jakob disease is more commonly known as the human version of mad cow disease. Shoulda said that in the OP.
Tinnitus is incredibly common. C-J disease is extremely rare. C-J disease is more associated with movement disorders than it is with tinnitus. I’ve been unable to uncover any evidence that tinnitus is a common early symptom of C-J disease.
From: http://cjdfoundation.org/CJDInfo.html
The initial stage of C-J disease can be subtle with ambiguous symptoms of insomnia, depression, confusion, personality and behavioral changes, strange physical sensations, and problems with memory, coordination and sight. As the disease advances, the patient experiences a rapidly, progressive dementia and in most cases, involuntary and irregular jerking movements known as myoclonus. Problems with language, sight, muscular weakness, and coordination worsen. The patient may appear startled and become rigid. In the final stage of the disease, the patient loses all mental and physical functions. The patient may lapse into a coma and usually dies from an infection like pneumonia precipitated by the bedridden, unconscious state.
Tinnitus may well be associated with a very rare degenerative brain disorder that affects only 1-5 people per million (not that I’ve found any cites to link the two), but it’s also a very common (50 million suffers in the US common) problem for people who have don’t have C-J. Since it seems that between one in five and one in six people in the us has tinnitus, it may be hard to separate it being a symptom from it being a coincidence that someone has
both.http://my.webmd.com/content/article/7/1680_53647.htm?lastselectedguid={5FE84E90-BC77-4056-A91C-9531713CA348}