Mixed tau and TDP-43 pathology in a patient with unclassifiable primary progressive aphasia.

Mixed tau and TDP-43 pathology in a patient with unclassifiable primary progressive aphasia.
Neurocase. 2015 May 1;:1-5
Authors: Flanagan EP, Duffy JR, Whitwell JL, Vemuri P, Dickson DW, Josephs KA
Abstract
Classifying primary progressive aphasia (PPA) into variants that may predict the underlying pathology is important. However, some PPA patients cannot be classified. A 78-year-old woman had unclassifiable PPA characterized by anomia, dysarthria, and apraxia of speech without agrammatism. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed left mesial temporal atrophy and 18-flourodeoxy-glucose positron emission tomography showed left anterior temporal and posterior frontal (premotor) hypometabolism. Autopsy revealed a mixed tauopathy (argyrophilic grain disease) and transactive response-DNA-binding-protein-43 proteinopathy. Dual pathologies may explain the difficulty classifying some PPA patients and recognizing this will be important as new imaging techniques (particularly tau-positron emission tomography) are introduced and patients begin enrollment in clinical trials targeting the underlying proteinopathy.
PMID: 25929342 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Neurocase - May 1, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Flanagan EP, Duffy JR, Whitwell JL, Vemuri P, Dickson DW, Josephs KA Tags: Neurocase Source Type: research