Apraxia of speech and nonfluent aphasia: a new clinical marker for corticobasal degeneration and progressive supranuclear palsy.
OBJECTIVE
To highlight the fact that patients with corticobasal degeneration (CBD) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) can sometimes present with a progressive apraxia of speech, nonfluent aphasia, or a combination of the two disorders.


RESULTS
Corticobasal degeneration and PSP are neurodegenerative diseases characterized by neuronal loss and gliosis in cardinal brain regions, as well as the abnormal deposition of the microtubule associated protein tau in cell bodies and cell processes. The typical presenting features of CBD and PSP are akinesia and rigidity that are levodopa unresponsive, although there has been evidence that both diseases, moreso CBD, can present with a dementia syndrome. Recent clinicopathological studies have now also demonstrated that a subset of patients with CBD and PSP present with a progressive apraxia of speech, nonfluent aphasia, or a combination of the two disorders.


CONCLUSIONS
Presenting features of progressive apraxia of speech or nonfluent aphasia are strongly associated with a diagnosis of CBD, PSP, or both.
Josephs
Keith A
KA
Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA. josephs.keith@mayo.edu
Duffy
Joseph R
JR
D000368:Aged; D001039:Aphasia, Broca / Q000209:etiology*; D001072:Apraxias / Q000209:etiology*; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000473:pathology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013494:Supranuclear Palsy, Progressive / Q000150:complications*