MR findings of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a rare entity

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a prion disease that causes progressive dementia and is invariably fatal. This results from the misfolding of normal cellular prion proteins into an abnormal conformation. Prompt diagnosis is essential to prevent human-to-human transmission. On MR imaging, CJD shows high T2 signal in basal ganglia and cerebral cortex, as well as progressive brain atrophy. However, diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) is more sensitive in the diagnosis by showing restricted diffusion as high signal on DWI image and low signal on ADC map. In this case report, we will discuss the clinical presentation and imaging features of CJD. We will also discuss the disease entities which can mimic CJD.