Purpose: Diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI), as a non-Gaussian diffusion model, has been applied in human and animal studies of ischemic stroke. This study aimed to intensively characterize the temporal evolution of DKI-derived variables in an experimental middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model, and to explore its potential application in ischemic stroke. Materials and methods: Eleven MCAO rats and ten control rats underwent DKI and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) scans, at different time points of 0.5, 2, 6, 12, 24 and 72 h after operation respectively. The infarct area in DKI- and DWI-derived variables was compared among different time points, and between different groups [INFARCTION, MIRROR, CONTROL-R (right side of the control group, the same side as in the infarction group), CONTROL-L (left side of the control group)] using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). The percent changes from normal to that in ischemic tissues and histology were also evaluated. Results: In the infarct region, from 0.5 to 72 h, MK, K-parallel to, K-perpendicular to demonstrated irregular high signal, whereas relative homogeneous low signals were revealed by MD, D-parallel to, D-perpendicular to and ADC. Compared with the MIRROR and CONTROL-R group, MK, K-parallel to, K-perpendicular to in the infarcted area increased aggressively which peaked at 12 h and gradually decreased; MD, D-parallel to, D-perpendicular to and ADC decreased gradually until 12 h and then began to increase gradually; FA decreased rapidly from 0.5 to 72 h. MD, D-parallel to and ADC were significantly different between Mirror and CONTROL -L group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: DKI can provide more detailed information to describe ischemic lesion, and has great potential application in ischemic stroke. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.