Cortical sensory loss in a patient with posterior cortical atrophy: a case report

Patients with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) who present with initial symptoms of higher visual function deficits eventually develop alexia, aphasia, and components of Balint's syndrome or Gerstmann's syndrome. Recently, pathological findings were reported for these patients that are generally suggestive of Alzheimer's disease even though Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) was presumed as an alternative cause of some autopsy-diagnosed PCA cases. Here, we report a case with a four-year progression of cognitive and higher visual function deterioration, and with features not described in previously reported PCA cases (i.e., a distinct sensory complaint and early frontal lobe involvement). To summarize, this case belongs to perceptual-motor syndrome of asymmetric cortical degeneration and the underlying neuropathology is more suggestive of Alzheimer's disease than of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.