Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of CT and MRI in diagnosing cerebral infarction. Methods 84 cases with cerebral infarction in our hospital from September 2013 to August 2014 were selected as study objects and they were given CT and MRI respectively. The coincidence rate differences of different types and different onset time of cerebral infarction detection rate were compared. Results 78 cases were detected from 84 cases with MRI, the detection rate was 92.9%, obviously higher than CT detection (66.7%). Detection rate of MRI in diagnosing ischemic infarction and lacunar infarction were 93.1% and 97.2%, obviously higher than CT detection (65.5 and 61.1%), the difference was statistically significant (P＜0.05); Detection rate of MRI within 12h and 12-24h were 84.0% and 94.6%, obviously higher than CT detection rate (52.0% and 64.7%), the difference was statistically significant (P＜0.05). The difference was not statistically significant after 24h (P＞0.05). Conclusion CT and MRI are all effective methods and MRI can be used in early diagnosis. MRI detection rate of different types of cerebral infarction is higher than CT, and it is suggested that the the combination of them can improve the diagnostic rate