The undiscovered syndrome: Macdonald Critchley's case of semantic dementia.

The undiscovered syndrome: Macdonald Critchley's case of semantic dementia. Neurocase. 2014 May 12;:1-5 Authors: Witoonpanich P, Crutch SJ, Warren JD, Rossor MN Abstract Semantic dementia is a unique clinicopathological syndrome in the frontotemporal lobar degeneration spectrum. It is characterized by progressive and relatively selective impairment of semantic memory, associated with asymmetric antero-inferior temporal lobe atrophy. Although the syndrome became widely recognized only in the 1980s, descriptions of cases with typical features of semantic dementia have been on record for over a century. Here, we draw attention to a well documented historical case of a patient with features that would have fulfilled current consensus criteria for semantic dementia, as reconstructed from the notes made by her neurologist, Macdonald Critchley, in 1938. This case raises a number of issues concerning the nosology of the semantic dementia syndrome and the potential value of archived case material. PMID: 24818802 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Neurocase - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neurocase Source Type: research