BackgroundCreutzfeldt-Jakobdisease（CJD）,araredisease,isuncharacterizedbycomputedtomography（CT）andmagneticresonanceimaging（MRI）.Thisstudywasaimedtoevaluatethediffusion-weightedMRI（DWI）manifestationsofCJDandtodiscusstheirdiagnosticvalue.MethodsThefindingsofT1-weightedMRI（T1WI）,T2-weightedMRI（T2WI）,DWIandpost-contrastMRIin5patients（3patientswithbiopsy-provenCJDand2patientswithclinically-provenCJD）wereretrospectivelyanalyzedinthisstudy.ResultsFouroutofthe5patientshadcerebralatrophyofvariousdegrees.Onepatientshowedsymmetrichighsignalintensityatthebilateralglobuspallidusandtheheadofthecaudatenucleus,withveryhighsignalinthecerebralcortexontheDWI.ThispatientonlyhadsymmetricslightlyhighsignalatthebilateralglobuspallidusandputamenonT2WI.OnepatienthadhighsignalintensityatthebasalgangliaandcerebralcortexonDWI,butabnormalT2signalintensityatthebilateralparaventricularwhitematteronMRI.Twopatientspresentedwithwidelygyri-likehighsignalintensityatthecortexonDWI,butroutineMRIshowedbilateralparaventricularlongT2signalintensityin1patientandnoabnormalfindingsinanother.NoabnormalitieswereshownbybothroutineMRIandDWIinthelastpatient.ConclusionsDWIismoresensitivethanitsconventionalcounterpartinthedepictionofCJD.DWIismoresensitivetodetectcorticalabnormalsignalintensityinCJDnotdetectedbyT2WI.
