Towards a Clearer Definition of Logopenic Progressive Aphasia

Behavior (HS Kirshner, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Logopenic progressive aphasia is the most recently described clinical variant of primary progressive aphasia (PPA), defined by impairment of lexical retrieval and sentence repetition. Unlike other PPA variants, the logopenic variant of PPA (lv-PPA) is commonly associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a fact that is relevant to the selection of patients for clinical trials and disease-modifying therapies. Despite the straightforward definition and coherent pathological association, the existence of lv-PPA has been challenged, as its distinction from AD or other PPA variants can be difficult. Despite these issues, lv-PPA patients display characteristic linguistic deficits, a pattern of brain atrophy, and possibly genetic susceptibility, which warrant considering this variant as a discrete AD endophenotype. More specific clinical and anatomical markers can strengthen the consistency of this syndrome.

Keywords

Primary progressive aphasia Logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia Nonfluent/agrammatic variant of primary progressive aphasia Alzheimer’s disease 
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Notes

Acknowledgment

John R. Hodges has received grant support from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

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Conflict of Interest

Cristian E. Leytona declares that he has no conflict of interest.

John R. Hodges is a Senior Principal Research Fellow for Neuroscience Research Australia, and an ARC Federation Fellow and Professor of Cognitive Neurology at the University of New South Wales. He receives editor royalties and speaker royalties for Henry Stewart Talks.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Neuroscience Research AustraliaRandwickAustralia
  2. 2.ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its DisordersSydneyAustralia
  3. 3.School of Medical SciencesThe University of New South WalesSydneyAustralia

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