Extended and direct evaluation of RT-Qu IC assays for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease diagnosis.

Real-Time Quaking-Induced Conversion ( RT-Qu IC) testing of human cerebrospinal fluid ( CSF) is highly sensitive and specific in discriminating sporadic CJD patients from those without prion disease. Here, using CSF samples from 113 CJD and 64 non-prion disease patients, we provide the first direct and concurrent comparison of our improved RT-Qu IC assay to our previous assay, which is similar to those commonly used internationally for CJD diagnosis. This extended comparison demonstrated a ~21% increase in diagnostic sensitivity, a 2-day reduction in average detection time, and 100% specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]