Primary progressive aphasia with focal neuronal achromasia.

Abstract

We describe the clinical, radiologic, neuropsychological, and neuropathologic features of a 69-year-old man with a 3-year history of progressive transcortical expressive aphasia. Neuropsychological testing showed progressive dysfunction of expressive language. Neuropathologic examination demonstrated focal cortical degeneration involving the left superior frontal gyrus, with swollen achromasic neurons and no evidence of Alzheimer's disease, Pick's disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Lewybody disease, or other dementing disorders. This case adds to the known heterogeneity of the underlying pathology of patients with primary progressive aphasia.