Primary progressive aphasia: analisys of 16 cases

• Autor(a) principal: Radanovic,Márcia
• Data de Publicação: 2001
• Outros Autores: Senaha,Mirna Lie Hosogi, Mansur,Letícia Lessa, Nitrini,Ricardo, Bahia,Valéria Santoro, Carthery,Maria Teresa, Aires,Flávia Nóbrega Freire, Mathias,Sandra Christina, Caramelli,Paulo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2001000400006
• topic: primary progressive aphasia; focal cortical degeneration; cerebral perfusion; neuroimaging

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is an intriguing syndrome, showing some peculiar aspects that differentiate it from classical aphasic pictures caused by focal cerebral lesions or dementia. The slow and progressive deterioration of language occurring in these cases provides an interesting model to better understand the mechanisms involved in the linguistic process. We describe clinical and neuroimaging aspects found in 16 cases of PPA. Our patients underwent language and neuropsychological evaluation, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT). We observed a clear distinction in oral expression patterns; patients were classified as fluent and nonfluent. Anomia was the earliest and most evident symptom in both groups. Neuroimaging pointed to SPECT as a valuable instrument in guiding the differential diagnosis, as well as in making useful clinical and anatomical correlations. This report and a comparison to literature are an attempt to contribute to a better understanding of PPA.