Sporadic MM2-thalamic + cortical Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: Utility of diffusion tensor imaging in the detection of cortical involvement in vivo.

ABSTRACT

In sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), high signal intensity in fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) sequences in striatum and/or cortical regions of the brain are present in about 83% of cases, reflecting tissue damage, such as spongiform change and abnormal prion protein deposits. Novel diffusion sequences of MRI might improve the detection of CJD characteristic changes in the subset of patients in whom these alterations are absent or less evident. We report a neuropathologically confirmed case of the rare MM2 T + C subtype of sCJD, with mixed clinical and neuropathological features of MM2 thalamic and MM2 cortical subtypes, in whom the use of diffusion tensor imaging helped to identify cortical hyperintensities that could be easily overlooked with conventional DWI.