Objective To explore clinical value of CT and MRI in the diagnosis of early cerebral infarction. Methods Clinical data of 110 patients with cerebral infarction confirmed by Neurology Department of the Hospital from February 2014 to March 2015 were retrospectively analyzed, all the patients retrospective analysis received MRI and CT examinations, and diagnosis results of two inspection methods were compared.Results The detection rate of MRI on cerebral infarction (93.64%) was higher than that of CT (62.73%), P<0.05, The detection rates of MRI on cerebral infarction at different infarction positions were higher than such indexes of CT (P＜0.05). These differences were statistically significant. Most of lesion shapes were in funicular, elliptical and circular, the number of ircular lesions (63.64%) were the most, the lesions with diameter ≤5mm approximately hit 68.01%, and their MRI images were clearer. Conclusion MRI and CT are important means of diagnosis on cerebral infarction, general detection rate and infarct detection rate of the former on early cerebral infarction was higher, it can clearly reflect the location, size and shape of lesion, and it delivers higher clinical value.