[Diffusion-weighted MRI in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease]

A case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease mimicking corticobasal degeneration: FDG PET, SPECT, and MRI findings

A 58-year-old woman was admitted with left-sided decreased sensation, ataxia, and left "alien" hand and leg. Brain SPECT and PET showed hypoperfusion and hypometabolism in the right frontoparietal cortices, including the primary sensorimotor cortex, and temporal cortex. MRI demonstrated matching-restricted diffusion and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery hyperintensity. Corticobasal degeneration was suspected initially. The patient declined rapidly, and the diagnosis of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) was made based on cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers. CJD can present with symptoms similar to other disorders. This case illustrates that CJD can mimic a rare neurodegenerative disorder, cortico-basal degeneration, both clinically and by neuroimaging.

MRI and FDG PET/CT findings in a case of probable Heidenhain variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by the accumulation of a pathogenic isoform of a prion protein in neurons that is responsible for subacute dementia. The Heidenhain variant is an atypical form of CJD in which visual signs are predominant. This is a report of the case of a 65-year-old man with probable CJD of the Heidenhain variant, with topographical concordance between findings on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) photopenic areas on positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) for cortical parietooccipital lesions.