Patients must first be diagnosed with PPA, and then divided into variants based on speech production features, repetition, single- word and syntax comprehension, confrontation naming, semantic knowledge, and reading/spelling. In the classical Mesulam criteria for primary progressive aphasia, there are two variants: a non-fluent type progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) and a fluent type semantic dementia (SD). A third variant of primary progressive aphasia, logopenic progressive aphasia (LPA) was then added, and is an atypical form of Alzheimers disease. For PNFA, The core criteria for diagnosis includes agrammatism and slow, and labored speech. Inconsistent speech sound errors are also very common, including distortions, deletions, and insertions. In terms of comprehension, there are deficits in syntax and sentence comprehension due to grammatical complexity, but single- word and object comprehension is relatively maintained. The second variant, SD, presents with deficits in single-word and object comprehension. Naming impairments can be severe, specially for low-frequency objects, and can eventually lead to a more widespread semantic memory deficiency over time. The ability to read and write can also be impaired if there are irregularities between pronunciation and spelling. However, repetition and motor speech is relatively preserved. The logopenic variant involves impairments in word retrieval, sentence repetition, and phonological paraphasias, comparable to conduction aphasia. Compared to the semantic variant, single word comprehension and naming is spared, however, sentence comprehension presents difficulty because of length and grammatical complexity. Speech will include incomplete words, hesitations preceding content words, and repetition.
History
M.-Marsel Mesulam coined the term primary progressive aphasia. See also
References
Further reading
Amici S, Ogar J, Brambati SM,  et al. (Dec 2007). "Performance in specific language tasks correlates with regional volume changes in progressive aphasia". Cognitive & Behavioral Neurology. 20 (4): 203–11. doi:10.1097/WNN.0b013e31815e6265. PMID 18091068. S2CID 18090918. Gliebus G (March 2010). "Primary progressive aphasia: clinical, imaging, and neuropathological findings". Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 25 (2): 125–7. doi:10.1177/1533317509356691. PMID 20124255. S2CID 29195502. Henry ML, Beeson PM, Alexander GE, Rapcsak SZ (February 2012). "Written language impairments in primary progressive aphasia: a reflection of damage to central semantic and phonological processes". J Cogn Neurosci. 24 (2): 261–75. doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00153. PMC 3307525. PMID 22004048. Henry ML, Gorno-Tempini ML (December 2010). "The logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia". Current Opinion in Neurology. 23 (6): 633–7. doi:10.1097/WCO.0b013e32833fb93e. PMC 3201824. PMID 20852419. Reilly J, Rodriguez AD, Lamy M, Neils-Strunjas J (2010). "Cognition, language, and clinical pathological features of non-Alzheimers dementias: an overview". J Commun Disord. 43 (5): 438–52. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2010.04.011. PMC 2922444. PMID 20493496. Rohrer JD, Knight WD, Warren JE, Fox NC, Rossor MN, Warren JD (January 2008). "Word-finding difficulty: a clinical analysis of the progressive aphasias". Brain. 131 (Pt 1): 8–38. doi:10.1093/brain/awm251. PMC 2373641. PMID 17947337. == External links ==