Sporadic onset Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease: Interesting MRI observations

We describe a 60-year-old woman with "probable" sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) who manifested with two months history of rapidly progressive dementia and abnormal behavior, speech and gait abnormality, excessive sleepiness and myoclonic jerks. Scalp EEG showed diffuse slowing of background activity to delta range and triphasic sharp wave complexes occurring periodically twice in one-second interval. Magnetic resonance Imaging (MRI) of brain revealed high signal intensity on T2 weighted image (T2WI) and fluid attenuated inversion recovery sequences in the caudate and putamen bilaterally. Diffusion weighted images showed bilateral symmetric hyperintense signals in the caudate and putamen. The role of MRI in the diagnosis of CJD is discussed.