Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: typical imaging findings

A 63-year-old woman, previously healthy, presented with a 2-month history of progressive memory impairment, disorientation and behavioural changes. Examination revealed dysphasia, cerebellar ataxia and hypertonia of her upper limbs. Stimulus-sensitive myoclonus was also noted. Head CT was normal. MRI study was performed and revealed symmetric bilateral hyperintensities in putamen and caudate nucleus on T2-weighted (figure 1) images and fluid-attenuation inversion recovery (figure 2). On diffusion-weighted imaging, striatum and cortical frontotemporal gyriform hyperintense areas (cortical ribboning) were noted (figure 3), with …