title: Agraphia in Korean patients with early onset Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Agraphia in Korean patients may be different from agraphia in other patients who use alphabetical writing systems due to the "visuoconstructional script" characteristics of the Korean writing system, Hangul. Patients with early onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) have a severe degree of hypometabolism in the parietal area, which is known to be involved in processing visuospatial function. Thus, we explored the diverse error patterns manifested in writing single syllables in Korean patients with EOAD.
  
  
  METHODS
  A study sample of 35 patients with EOAD and 18 healthy controls (HC) performed a Hangul writing task. We analyzed the erroneous responses of the subjects according to visuoconstructional and linguistic characteristics. In addition, we evaluated the relationship between Hangul writing and the neuropsychological variables as well as the severity of dementia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  When comparing the total number of erroneous responses between EOAD and HC groups, the performances of EOAD patients were significantly worse than those of HC. EOAD patients demonstrated visuoconstructional errors even in the early stages of the disease. Severity of dementia and multiple cognitive domains such as attention, language, immediate memory, and frontal executive functions significantly correlated with the performance of Hangul writing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that patients with EOAD exhibit not only linguistic errors but also visuoconstructional manifestations of agraphia, which are associated with cognitive impairments in the multiple domains.
authors: Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors: Ji Hye
authors: JH
authors: Yoon
authors: Mee Kyung
authors: MK
authors: Suh
authors: Yong
authors: Y
authors: Jeong
authors: Hyun-Jung
authors: HJ
authors: Ahn
authors: So Young
authors: SY
authors: Moon
authors: Juhee
authors: J
authors: Chin
authors: Sang Won
authors: SW
authors: Seo
authors: Duk L
authors: DL
authors: Na