Jargonaphasia in logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Neuroscience
• Linguistics

Background:

• Logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA) is a progressive language disorder, frequently an early form of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
• Patients with lvPPA experience difficulties with word retrieval and language expression.
• Misdiagnosis is common when lvPPA presents as jargonaphasia, marked by unintelligible speech.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and characterize patients with lvPPA who present with jargonaphasia.
• To differentiate jargonaphasia in lvPPA from other aphasic presentations.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective review of patients meeting lvPPA criteria over 23 years was conducted.
• Positron emission tomography (PET) brain scans were utilized for evaluation.
• Patients with jargonaphasia were specifically identified and analyzed within the lvPPA cohort.

Main Results:

• Nine out of 95 (9.47%) lvPPA patients presented with jargonaphasia.
• Jargonaphasia patients showed reduced awareness of deficits, poorer mental status, and greater comprehension difficulties.
• Bilateral temporo-parietal hypometabolism was more prevalent in jargonaphasia patients.
• Bilingual or multilingualism was observed in 44.4% of jargonaphasia patients versus 14% of others.

Conclusions:

• Approximately 1 in 10 lvPPA patients exhibit severely unintelligible speech (jargonaphasia).
• This presentation is associated with bilateral temporo-parietal disease affecting language and awareness.
• Jargonaphasia in lvPPA requires differentiation from other aphasias and psychiatric conditions.