Moreover, in diseases such as Alzheimers disease, Picks disease, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, progressive deterioration of comprehension and production of language is just one of the many possible types of mental deterioration, such as the progressive decline of memory, motor skills, reasoning, awareness, and visuospatial skills. Causes
Currently, the specific causes for PPA and other degenerative brain disease similar to PPA are unknown. Autopsies have revealed a variety of brain abnormalities in people who had PPA. These autopsies, as well as imaging techniques such as CT scans, MRI, EEG, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET), have generally revealed abnormalities to be almost exclusively in the left hemisphere. Risk factors
There have been no large epidemiological studies on the incidence and prevalence of the PPA variants. Though it most likely has been underestimated, onset of PPA has been found to occur in the sixth or seventh decade.There are no known environmental risk factors for the progressive aphasias. However, one observational, retrospective study suggested that vasectomy could be a risk factor for PPA in men. These results have yet to be replicated or demonstrated by prospective studies.PPA is not considered a hereditary disease. However, relatives of a person with any form of frontotemporal lobar degeneration, including PPA, are at slightly greater risk of developing PPA or another form of the condition. In a quarter of patients diagnosed with PPA, there is a family history of PPA or one of the other disorders in the FTLD spectrum of disorders.
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 ==