Usefulness of cervical computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging for rapid diagnosis of crowned dens syndrome: A case report and review of the literature.

•We report a patient with crowned dens syndrome dramatically improved following treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication.•This condition should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a possible etiology for fever, headache and cervical pain of unknown origin.•The rapid diagnosis of crowned dense syndrome using CT and MRI can prevent invasive, expensive and useless investigations.•It was very interesting that the soft tissue surrounding the odontoid process was hyperintense on MR T2-weighted imaging with fat suppression.•This is the first report of making reference to MRI findings of crowned dens syndrome.