Objective To investigate the correlation between MRI diffusion kurtosis imaging （DKI） parameters and clinical stage of nasopharyngeal carcinoma（NPC）. Methods 86 patients with pathologically proved NPC were scanned byDKI. DKI parameters included fractional anisotropy（FA），mean diffusivity（MD）， axial diffusivity（Da），radial diffusivity（Dr），mean kurtosis（MK），axial kurtosis（Ka），radial kurtosis（Kr）. FA of kurtosis（FAK）value. The consistency of the parameters of tumor focus DKI measured by the two observers was tested by intraclass correlation coefficient（ICC）. To analyze the correlation between DKI parameters and NPC clinical stage，T stage and N stage. When the parameter values between the two groups were in accordance with the normal distribution，the differences of different groups were compared by two independent sample t ⁃test. Results The values of DKI parameters of nasopharyngeal carcinoma lesions measured by the two observers were in good agreement（ICC > 0.75）. The MD values of DKI parameters in the high⁃grade group were lower than those in the low⁃grade group in the clinical stage，the MK value in the high⁃grade group was higher than the low⁃grade group in the clinical stage，the MD value in the T⁃stage high⁃grade group were lower than those in the low⁃grade group，and the MK value was In T stage，the high stage group was higher than the low stage group，the MD value in the N stage group were lower than those in the low stage group，and the MK value in the N stage high stage group was higher than the low stage group，and the difference was statistically significant（P < 0.05）. The values of DKI parameters FA，Da，Dr，FAK，Ka and Kr were not statistically significant in NPC clinical stage，T stage and N stage. Conclusion The MD value and MK value of DKI parameters were related to the clinical stage，T and N stage of NPC. The clinical stage，T stage and N stage were high，the MD value decreased and the MK value increased.