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P4‐268: Impact Of Statin Blood‐brain Barrier Permeability On Test Performance In Asymptomatic Middle‐aged Adults At Risk For AD: The WRAP Cohort
Author(s) -
Carlsson Cynthia M.,
Dowling N. Maritza,
Hermann Bruce P.,
Gleason Carey E.,
Johnson Sterling C.,
La Rue Asenath,
Asthana Sanjay,
Sager Mark A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2009.07.049
Subject(s) - medicine , statin , asymptomatic , dementia , cohort , effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance , apolipoprotein e , neuropsychological assessment , neuropsychology , cognition , disease , psychiatry
characterized by word-finding difficulties and decrease verbal output, relatively preserved syntax and phonology. A comprehensive model encompassing all types of degenerative language disorders should include a variant similar to the fluent (Wernicke) aphasia. Objective: The aim of the present work was to describe a case of fluent PPA without semantic deficits, associated with areas of hypometabolism in anterior and posterior regions mainly in the left hemisphere. Methods: Our patient (G.P.) developed a fluent PPA during the last ten years. The clinical onset was circumscribed to anomia and deficits of executive functions, followed by progressive impairment of speech production to the point where her language was fluent but totally unintelligible with neologisms and few phonemic paraphasias. Verbal comprehension was completely lost, while prosody and communicative gestures continued to be relatively spared. G.P. was submitted to cerebral 18F-FDG PET and data were analyzed with SPM5. Compared to a group of healthy controls, G.P. showed reduced metabolism, mainly in the left hemisphere, at the level of the left angular gyrus and left precuneus (BA 39 and BA 7 respectively), the left caudate, the superior temporal gyri bilaterally (BA 22) and the bilateral inferior frontal areas (BA 44). Conclusion: While non fluent and fluent language variants defined respectively as progressive non-fluent aphasia and semantic dementia are well recognized entities, to our knowledge, there is no mention about a language disorder evolving to degenerative Wernicke’s aphasia. The present data would suggest that a fourth variant of PPA, characterized by preserved initial semantic abilities and anomia, evolving in fluent unintelligible speech and deficit of comprehension, might be defined as a degenerative form of Wernicke’s aphasia.