Neuropsychological decline in frontotemporal lobar degeneration: a longitudinal analysis.
Few studies have assessed whether the patterns of neuropsychological impairment in patients with different frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) subtypes remain distinct over the duration of their illness or devolve into a common, undifferentiated neuropsychological state. A longitudinal neuropsychological analysis was obtained over 100 months assessing executive control, language/naming, and visuoconstruction in 441 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and four FTLD subtypes, i.e., a social comportment/dysexecutive (SOC/EXEC) disorder; progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA); semantic dementia (SemD); and corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Initial group differences on each measure were maintained over the duration of illness, including several double dissociations. For example, AD patients exhibited a decline in 'animal' fluency; PNFA patients had difficulty on tests of executive control, SemD maintained their impairment on tests of naming, and CBD had presented with performance on visuoconstructional tests. None of the group by neuropsychological task interactions evaluating longitudinal decline was significant, suggesting that performance does not converge onto a common subtype over time. These data indicate that distinct patterns of neuropsychological impairment are maintained longitudinally, reflecting the unique anatomic distribution of relative disease burden in AD and FTLD.
Department of Neurology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19129, USA. dlibon@drexelmed.edu
David J
DJ
Libon
Sharon X
SX
Xie
Xingmei
X
Wang
Lauren
L
Massimo
Peachie
P
Moore
Luisa
L
Vesely
Alea
A
Khan
Anjan
A
Chatterjee
H Branch
HB
Coslett
Howard I
HI
Hurtig
Tsao-Wei
TW
Liang
Murray
M
Grossman
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001037:Aphasia / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012660:Semantics; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014796:Visual Perception