[Behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia with stereotypic speech: a case report]

A patient with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia presented with stereotypic speech. The 85-year-old right-handed man had progressive language disorder over 2 years, with changes in eating behavior. His verbal output consisted mainly of the stereotypic speech; his articulation was mildly distorted, but his speech was intelligible. Spontaneous speech was rare, but there was no evidence of difficulty in initiating speech or effort. MRI of the head showed atrophy of the left frontal lobe, mainly in the superior, middle, and inferior frontal gyrus. Cerebral blood flow SPECT showed decreased cerebral blood flow in the same areas and in the left basal ganglia. We diagnosed behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia based on the symptoms, progression, and lesions. The stereotypic speech was judged to be non-meaningful recurrent utterance.