Progressive aphemia in a patient with Pick's disease: a neuropsychological and anatomic study

We describe a patient with progressive aphemia with agrammatism that was later overlaid with buccofacial apraxia and pseudobulbar palsy. Pathological findings were consistent with those of classic Pick's disease with argyrophilic inclusions and neuronal achromasia, except for restricted cortical atrophy in the frontal operculum posterior to the pars opercularis (Brodmann Area 44). In addition, major neuronal loss was confined to the premotor cortex and the anterior half of the precentral gyrus (Area 6), which apparently explained the aphemia. The present case demonstrated that classic Pick's disease can show quite limited cortical atrophy in a patient who clinically presents with progressive aphemia. Also, our patient differed from the progressive non-fluent aphasia patients reported as having Pick's disease, who were all Pick variants, revealing that classic Pick's disease can be included in the spectrum of progressive aphasia syndrome.