[Aphasia and dementia]

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is an uncommon neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by a relatively isolated dissolution of language function at the beginning, followed by deterioration of general cognitive function and of activities of daily living after 2 or more years. On account of neuropathological and clinical findings, PPA is supposed to form part of the spectrum of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. We present a case study of a 66-year-old woman with a probable fluent progressive aphasia. She initially experienced word amnesia and developed after 2 - 3 years gradual regression of word comprehension, over-fluent speech with semantic paraphasias, and at last generalized dementia. In addition to minor bilateral cortical volume reduction on CCT, MRI showed left temporal lobe atrophy involving hippocampus, SPECT revealed reduced uptake left frontal and temporal.