Slowly progressive aphasia in three patients. The problem of accompanying neuropsychological deficit.
Three patients are described presenting with a slowly progressive aphasic disorder associated with degenerative cortical disease. The symptoms began in the presenium and the length of illness was 4 to 5 years. The language disorder corresponded in all patients to a severe form of amnesic aphasia but a moderate to marked semantic breakdown was also found. Formal language examination was complemented by extensive neuropsychological testing. This revealed a severe deficit in language-dependent cognitive tasks. The patients were given a follow-up language and neuropsychological examination. In addition to the deterioration of language functions, a significant decline was observed in nonverbal intelligence tasks even though their level of performance still remained within the normal range. Follow-up with standardized intelligence tests might detect a trend towards generalized dementia in similar cases. This would mean that these patients should be considered as presenting with slowly progressive aphasia preceding generalized dementia.
Poeck
K
K
Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen, FRG.
Luzzatti
C
C
D001037:Aphasia / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000523:psychology*; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed