Clinical and neuroimaging characteristics of clinically unclassifiable primary progressive aphasia.

Clinical and neuroimaging characteristics of clinically unclassifiable primary progressive aphasia.
Brain Lang. 2019 Aug 13;197:104676
Authors: Utianski RL, Botha H, Martin PR, Schwarz CG, Duffy JR, Clark HM, Machulda MM, Butts AM, Lowe VJ, Jack CR, Senjem ML, Spychalla AJ, Whitwell JL, Josephs KA
Abstract
Many patients who meet core/root criteria for Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) are not classifiable as a recognized variant and are often excluded from neuroimaging studies. Here, we detail neurological, neuropsychological, speech and language assessments, and anatomic and molecular neuroimaging (MRI, PiB-PET, and FDG-PET) for fifteen (8 female) clinically unclassifiable PPA patients. Median age of onset was 64 years old with median 3 years disease duration at exam. Three patients were amyloid positive on PiB-PET. 14/15 patients had abnormal FDG-PETs with left predominant hypometabolism, affecting frontal, temporal, parietal, and even occipital lobes. Patients had mild to severe clinical presentations. Visualization of the FDG-PETs principal component analysis revealed patterns of hypometabolism similar to those seen in the PPA variants and suggests the brain regions affected in unclassifiable PPA patients are no different from those who are more easily classifiable. These findings may inform future modifications to the diagnostic criteria to improve diagnostic classification.
PMID: 31419589 [PubMed - as supplied by pu...

Source: Brain and Language - August 12, 2019 Category: Neurology Authors: Utianski RL, Botha H, Martin PR, Schwarz CG, Duffy JR, Clark HM, Machulda MM, Butts AM, Lowe VJ, Jack CR, Senjem ML, Spychalla AJ, Whitwell JL, Josephs KA Tags: Brain Lang Source Type: research