Magnetic resonance imaging is not a sensitive test for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

doi:10.1136/bmj.312.7034.844

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Martin Zeidler,
R G Will,
J W Ironside,
R Sellar,
J Wardlaw

Research fellow Consultant neurologist Senior lecturer in pathology National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Unit, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh EH4 2XU
Consultant neuroradiologist Consultant neuroradiologist Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Western General Hospital

EDITOR,—Terence Featherstone asks whether the prevalence of signal abnormalities in the basal ganglia seen on magnetic resonance imaging in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is being studied.1 We have been conducting systematic surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Britain since 1990 and have collected data, including reports of magnetic resonance imaging, on 256 definite and probable cases (as defined by Masters et al2). We are also currently involved in a study to ascertain radiological and pathological correlations, using postmortem magnetic resonance imaging of the brain before histological processing.

Ninety six people …