title: Swallowing in primary progressive aphasia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Few studies have described characteristics of swallowing in primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and its variants.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe and characterize swallowing and eating behaviors of patients with PPA, as well as their correlates with neuropsychiatric symptoms and patterns of communication.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 16 patients with PPA and 16 their caregivers. PPA was subdivided in agrammatic variant (PPA-G), semantic variant (PPA-S) and logopenic variant (PPA-L). All patients and their caregivers were screened with the following scales: "Assessment of Feeding and Swallowing Difficulties in Dementia", "Neuropsychiatric Inventory", and "Functional Outcome Questionnaire for Aphasia".
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with PPA-S had diverse swallowing problems such as drooling of saliva or food, multiple swallows, delayed swallow and choking, all of which correlated with anxiety, apathy and aberrant motor behavior. Patients with PPA-G and PPA-L had choking and delayed swallow, respectively. Disturbances in eating behaviors were more frequent in the group with PPA-L, and they correlated with difficulties in patterns of communication.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  All variants showed swallowing difficulties and they were more frequent in PPA-S. Further studies with larger samples of patients are needed to better characterize swallowing problems and their consequences in the different variants of PPA.
authors.forename: Sheilla de Medeiros Correia
authors.initials: Sde M
authors.lastname: Marin
authors.forename: Paulo Henrique Ferreira
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Bertolucci
authors.forename: Luis Fabiano
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Marin
authors.forename: Fabricio Ferreira
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: Jose Roberto
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Wajman
authors.forename: Valéria Santoro
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Bahia
authors.forename: Letícia Lessa
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Mansur
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D018888:Aphasia, Primary Progressive / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003679:Deglutition / Q000502:physiology; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
keywords: Aphasia; behavior; communication; deglutition disorders/diagnosis; feeding behavior; primary progressive; questionnaires