L'aphasie (primaire) progressive: un diagnostic simple ou complexe

Abstract

bSer vice de Psychiatrie Geriatrique, Depar tement de Psychiatrie, HUG, Geneve Summary (Primary) progressive aphasias: as imple or complex diagnosis? Initially described by Arnold Pick in the late XIXth Century, the syndrome of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) was redefined by Marcel Mesulam in 1982. He not only proposed clinical criteria and the first classification but also suggested its neuropathological basis, as part of frontotemporal degeneration. In subsequent years, more cases with heterogeneous linguistic features (such as apraxia of speech, adynamic aphasia) were added to the classic dysfluent adynamic, logopenic and semantic variants. Apart enormous neuropathological heterogeneity, the syndrome can be preceded clinically by other neurological or neuropsychiatric syndromes such as corticobasal degeneration, supranuclear palsy, motor neuron disease or frontotemporal dementia, becoming ap rogressive aphasia (PA). PA is therefore an on specifi cn eurodegenerative disease encompassing non-alzheimer pathology with Ta up ositive or Ubiquitin positive inclusions and frequent mutations in the progranulin gene, or Alzheimer pathology. There is still no evidence based treatment. Better diagnosis and longitudinal patient care in as pecialized clinic is recommended.