[Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. What is the role of MR tomography?]

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare, but fatal and transmissible brain disease. The clinical diagnosis is based upon progressing dementia, myoclonic jerks and characteristic EEG changes, but it is difficult to diagnose and not only in the early phase of the disease. Cerebral biopsy is reserve for individual selected cases and contested because of the danger of contamination from instruments and potential transmission. We report three patients with histologically confirmed CJD and confirm that MRI is a valuable tool for the diagnosis of this disease.