Objective To investigate the conventional MRI and DWI features of prostatic abscess.Methods 8 patients with path-ologically and clinically proved prostatic abscess who were performed MRI examination in our institution were enrolled in this study. Among them,2 patients underwent CT examination and 7 patients were performed DWI examination (b = 0 and 1 000 s/mm2 ). Their CT,conventional MRI and DWI features were retrospectively analyzed.The ADC value between prostatic abscess and normal prostate tissues were compared by using paired t test.Statistical significance was inferred at P <0.05.Results 2 patients with 3 fo-cal abscesses,2 patients with 2 focal abscesses,and 4 patients with only one focal abscess.4 abscesses perforated the prostate cap-sule and involved the fat gap in front of the rectum.Prostatic abscess showed low hypointensity on T1 WI,hyperintensity on T2 WI and DWI.2 focal abscesses with low signal areas consistent both on T1 WI and T2 WI of gas.The mean ADCs of prostatic abscess were (0.854±0.223)×10 -3 mm2/s ,which were significantly lower than those of prostate tissues (1.41 6±0.1 68 )×10 -3 mm2/s (P <0.05).Conclusion Prostatic abscess has characteristic feature on MRI,and shows restricted diffusion on DWI.MRI can clearly display their size,number and invasive condition of the circumambient organs.Thus should be considered as an optimal method in the diagnosis of prostatic abscess.