Objective To investigate the clinical value of platelet distribution width in patients with cerebral infarct（CI）. Methods A total of 98 patients who had been diagnosed as cerebral infarct in our department, were enrolled into this study. According to the score on the Scandinavian Stroke Scale (SNSS, maximum 58), all patients were divided into four groups according to stroke severity. Mild: 44～58,Moderate: 29～43, Severe: 15～28,Very Severe: 0～14. Fifty healthy controls were enrolled in this study. The correlation between PDW and the severity of disease and infarct size was analyzed. The modified Rankin Scale (mRS) was employed to assess the short-term outcome and the value of SNSS and PDW was examined using AUC to predict the short-term outcome. Results Compared with control group, PDW was positively correlated with the severity of disease (P＜0.05) and infarct size (P＜0.01). The AUC of PDW and SNSS were 0.811, 0.874, sespectively. Conclusion PDW could be regarded as laboratory index to evaluate the severity, infarct size and prognosis of cerebral infarct in plateau.