Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Posterior cortical atrophy: A brief review

  • Published:
Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Posterior cortical atrophy is a striking clinical syndrome in which a dementing illness begins with visual symptoms. Initially, the problem may seem to be loss of elementary vision, but over time the patient develops features of visual agnosia, topographical difficulty, optic ataxia, simultanagnosia, ocular apraxia (Balint’s syndrome), alexia, acalculia, right-left confusion, and agraphia (Gerstmann’s syndrome), and later a more generalized dementia. Occasional patients have visual hallucinations and signs of Parkinson’s disease or Lewy body dementia. A number of different neuropathologic disorders are associated with posterior cortical atrophy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References and Recommended Reading

  1. Renner JA, Burns JM, Hou CE, et al.: Progressive posterior cortical dysfunction. A clinicopathologic series. Neurology 2004, 63:1175–1180. Important study.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Benson DF, Davis RJ, Snyder DB: Posterior cortical atrophy. Arch Neurol 1988, 45:789–793.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Cogan DG: Visual disturbances with focal progressive dementing disease. Am J Ophthalmology 1985, 100:68–72.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Kiyosawa M, Bosley TM, Chawluk J, et al.: Alzheimer’s disease with prominent visual symptoms. Clinical and metabolic evaluation. Ophthalmology 1989, 96:1077–1086.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Berthier ML, Leiguarda R, Starkstein SE, et al.: Alzheimer’s disease in a patient with posterior cortical atrophy. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1991, 54:1110–1111.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Levine DN, Lee JM, Fisher CM: The visual variant of Alzheimer’s disease: a clinicopathologic case study. Neurology 1993, 43:305–313.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Victoroff J, Ross GW, Benson DF, et al.: Posterior cortical atrophy. Neuropathologic correlations. Arch Neurol 1994, 51:269–274.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Zakzanis KK, Boulos MI: Posterior cortical atrophy. Neurologist 2001, 7:341–349.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Nestor PJ, Caine D, Fryer TD, et al.: The topography of metabolic deficits in posterior cortical atrophy (the visual variant of Alzheimer’s disease) with FDG-PET. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003, 74:1521–1529.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Tang-Wai DF, Graff-Radford NR, Boeve BF, et al.: Clinical, genetic, and neuropathological characteristics of posterior cortical atrophy. Neurology 2004, 63:1168–1174. Important study.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Charles RF, Hillis AE: Posterior cortical atrophy: clinical presentation and cognitive deficits compared to Alzheimer’s disease. Behav Neurol 2005, 16:15–23.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Schmidtke K, Hull M, Talazko J: Posterior cortical atrophy: variant of Alzheimer’s disease? A case series with PET findings. J Neurol 2005, 252:27–35.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Furuya H, Ikezoe K, Ohyagi Y, et al.: A case of progressive posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) with vivid hallucination: are some ghost tales vivid hallucinations in normal people? J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2006, 77:424–425.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Mendez MF, Mendez MA, Martin R, et al.: Complex visual disturbances in Alzheimer’s disease. Neurology 1990, 40:439–443.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Rizzo JF, Cronin-Golomb A, Growdon JH, et al.: Retinocalcarine function in Alzheimer’s disease. A clinical and electrophysiological study. Arch Neurol 1992, 49:93–101.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Whitwell JL, Jack CR Jr, Kantarci K, et al.: Imaging correlates of posterior cortical atrophy. Neurobiol Aging 2006, In press.

  17. Heidenhain A: Klinische und anatomische Untersuchungen uber eine eigenartige organische Erkrankung des Zentralnervensystems in Praesenium. Z Ges Neurol Psychiatry 1929, 118:49–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Meyer A, Leigh D, Bagg CE: A rare presenile dementia associated with cortical blindness (Heidenhain’s syndrome). J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiat 1954, 17:128–133.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Krupp S, Schulz-Schaeffer WJ, Finkenstaedt M, et al.: The Heidenhain variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Arch Neurol 1999, 56:55–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Cooper SA, Murray KL, Heath CA, et al.: Isolated visual symptoms at onset in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: the clinical phenotype of the “Heidenhain variant”. Br J Ophthalmol 2005, 89:1341–1342.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Keyrouz SG, Labib BT, Sethi R: MRI and EEG findings in Heidenhain variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Neurology 2006, 67:333.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Perry RH, Irving D, Blessed G, et al.: Senile dementia of Lewy body type. A clinically and neuropathologically distinct form of Lewy body dementia in the elderly. J Neurol Sci 1990, 95:119–139.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Filley CM: Neuropsychiatric features of Lewy body disease. Brain Cogn 1995, 28:229–239.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Galasko D, Katzman R, Salmon DP, Hansen L: Clinical and neuropathological findings in Lewy body dementias. Brain Cogn 1996, 31:166–175.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Ala TA, Yang KH, Sung JH, Frey WH II: Hallucinations and signs of parkinsonism help distinguish patients with dementia and cortical Lewy bodies from patients with Alzheimer’s disease at presentation: a clinicopathological study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1997, 62:16–21.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Knopman DS, Mastri AR, Frey WH, et al.: Dementia lacking distrinctive histologic features: a common non-Alzheimer degenerative dementia. Neurology 1990, 40:251–256.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. McMonagle P, Deering F, Berliner Y, Kertesz A: The cognitive profile of posterior cortical atrophy. Neurology 2006, 66:331–338. Important study.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Tang-Wai D, Mapstone M: What are we seeing? Is posterior cortical atrophy just Alzheimer’s disease? Neurology 2006, 66:300–301.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, 2311 Pierce Avenue, 37232-3375, Nashville, TN, USA

    Howard S. Kirshner MD

Authors
  1. Howard S. Kirshner MD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Patrick J. M. Lavin MB, BCh, BAO, MRCPI
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Howard S. Kirshner MD.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kirshner, H.S., Lavin, P.J.M. Posterior cortical atrophy: A brief review. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 6, 477–480 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-006-0049-0

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-006-0049-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation