MRI IN SPORADIC CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB-DISEASE - CORRELATION WITH CLINICALAND NEUROPATHOLOGICAL DATA

To ascertain whether increased grey matter signal intensity on T2-weig hted images in patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) corresponds to the stage and severity of this disease, we correlated M RI findings in four of our own and previously reported patients with s poradic CJD with the clinical variants, neuropathological changes at a utopsy, duration of the disease and survival time after MRI examinatio n. Of 15 patients with the extrapyramidal type of CJD, 10 showed incre ased signal in the basal ganglia on T2-weighted images. One of seven p atients with the Heidenhain variant had increased signal in the occipi tal cortex. Patients without increased grey matter signal intensity ha d a longer overall duration of CJD (P = 0.035). Although the interval between onset of neurological symptoms and MRI was not different, pati ents without increased grey matter signal also survived longer after M RI examination (P = 0.022).