{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,8]],"date-time":"2026-02-08T02:53:46Z","timestamp":1770519226705,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,2]],"date-time":"2025-01-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1735776000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Creutzfeldt\u2013Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare, fatal, and transmissible neurodegenerative disorder caused by prion proteins. Handling specimens from individuals with suspected or confirmed cases presents a safety challenge to hospital workers including clinical laboratory staff. As no national guidelines exist, the clinical pathology laboratory must establish protocols for handling these specimens to ensure sufficient protective measures. This study aims to explore how various medical institutions manage CJD specimens, as a first step toward developing standardized preanalytical protocols for safe specimen handling by health care professionals. Methods: An electronic survey was generated and disseminated to diplomats of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry and was posted on the Listserv platform of the American Society for Microbiology and the Artery forum of the Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine. The survey evaluated various procedures and precautions implemented, the nature of the specimens processed, and whether they are processed in-house or sent to reference laboratories. Results: A total of 49 responses were collected. Most respondents (64%) noted their laboratories process specimens with a clinical suspicion of CJD regardless of the level of suspicion, 13% handled specimens only if the degree of suspicion was low, and 16% did not process specimens in-house at all. Among those who process CJD specimens, practices varied greatly, including different levels of precautions, use of biological safety cabinets, aliquoting, disposal, and disinfection procedures. Conclusions: A lack of standardization across laboratories exists for the handling of specimens of patients with suspected CJD. This study summarizes the approaches reported by survey respondents, providing a rationale for developing protocols for the safe handling of these specimens and highlighting the need to develop uniform universal standardized processing procedures.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm14010204","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,2]],"date-time":"2025-01-02T06:05:10Z","timestamp":1735797910000},"page":"204","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Preanalytical Considerations of Handling Suspected Creutzfeldt\u2013Jakob Disease Specimens Within the Clinical Pathology Laboratories: A Survey-Based Approach"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Carla","family":"Stephan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5165-6884","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Taylor","family":"Kalomeris","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yaxin","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0124-7545","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jeffrey","family":"Kubiak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6296-6682","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sabrina","family":"Racine-Brzostek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-3404-9622","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ivo","family":"SahBandar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zhen","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Melissa M.","family":"Cushing","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"He S.","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"174","DOI":"10.1111\/neup.12355","article-title":"Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease","volume":"37","author":"Iwasaki","year":"2016","journal-title":"Neuropathology"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Antonioni, A., Raho, E.M., Gozzi, A., Cotta Ramusino, N., Cesnik, E., Padroni, M., De Vito, A., Pugliatti, M., and Tugnoli, V. (2022). Case Report: A Case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Heidenhain Variant Simulating PRES. Diagnostics, 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/diagnostics12071558"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"217","DOI":"10.4103\/0028-3886.310104","article-title":"A Case of Subacute Progressive Cerebellar Ataxia: Brownell-Oppenheimer Variant of Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease","volume":"6","author":"Pandey","year":"2021","journal-title":"Neurol. India"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"574","DOI":"10.1093\/clinchem\/hvad154","article-title":"Eye Catching Advancement for Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Diagnostics","volume":"70","author":"Helbling","year":"2024","journal-title":"Clin. Chem."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"49","DOI":"10.1136\/practneurol-2018-001935","article-title":"RT-QuIC: A new test for sporadic CJD","volume":"19","author":"Green","year":"2019","journal-title":"Pract. 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Neurol."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"114","DOI":"10.3201\/eid2001.130353","article-title":"Detection of Infectivity in Blood of Persons with Variant and Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease","volume":"20","author":"Douet","year":"2014","journal-title":"Emerg. Infect. Dis."},{"key":"ref_13","first-page":"20144","article-title":"Health professions and risk of sporadic Creutzfeldt\u2013Jakob disease, 1965 to 2010","volume":"17","author":"Brandel","year":"2012","journal-title":"Eurosurveillance"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1348","DOI":"10.1086\/319997","article-title":"Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: Recommendations for Disinfection and Sterilization","volume":"32","author":"Weinstein","year":"2001","journal-title":"Clin. Infect. Dis."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"83","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMc2000687","article-title":"Variant Creutzfeldt\u2013Jakob Disease Diagnosed 7.5 Years after Occupational Exposure","volume":"383","author":"Brandel","year":"2020","journal-title":"N. Engl. J. Med."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e31","DOI":"10.1155\/2012\/604308","article-title":"Prion Disease Risk Perception in Canadian Medical Laboratories","volume":"23","author":"Buxton","year":"2012","journal-title":"Can. J. Infect. Dis. Med. Microbiol."}],"container-title":["Journal of Clinical Medicine"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2077-0383\/14\/1\/204\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,7]],"date-time":"2025-10-07T15:23:30Z","timestamp":1759850610000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2077-0383\/14\/1\/204"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,2]]},"references-count":16,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1]]}},"alternative-id":["jcm14010204"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/jcm14010204","relation":{},"ISSN":["2077-0383"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2077-0383","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,2]]}}}