Joshi Anish, Roy Eric A, Black Sandra E, Barbour Kira
Cognitive Neurology Unit, Division of Neurology, Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Ont., Toronto, Canada.
Brain Cogn. 2003 Nov;53(2):403-7. doi: 10.1016/s0278-2626(03)00116-7.
Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a syndrome characterized by a progressive language deficit without other dementia features for at least two years (). Other deficits that are likely to co-exist with aphasia, such as apraxia, have only been investigated in a few case studies and only at a rudimentary level for the most part. In this study we investigate the frequency and severity of apraxic deficits in PPA patients. Ten PPA patients and twelve aged-matched healthy adults performed eight transitive gestures to pantomime and to imitation. Gesture performance was measured along five movement dimensions and a composite score based on the arithmetic mean of the five dimensions was calculated. Overall, PPA patients performed worse than controls with both pantomime and imitation. Furthermore, individual comparisons revealed that out of the three apraxia patterns described by (pantomime alone, imitation alone, or apraxia in both conditions), the most frequent pattern in PPA patients was apraxia in both conditions. This result corresponds with previous findings in populations of stroke and Alzheimer's patients. Considering the occurrence of apraxia in this population, this study supports the idea that a comprehensive apraxia assessment should be administered in cases of PPA.
原发性进行性失语（PPA）是一种综合征，其特征为至少两年内存在进行性语言缺陷且无其他痴呆特征（）。与失语症可能共存的其他缺陷，如失用症，仅在少数病例研究中有所调查，且大多仅处于初步水平。在本研究中，我们调查了PPA患者失用性缺陷的频率和严重程度。10名PPA患者和12名年龄匹配的健康成年人进行了8种传递性手势的模仿和比划。沿着五个运动维度测量手势表现，并基于这五个维度的算术平均值计算综合得分。总体而言，PPA患者在模仿和比划方面的表现均不如对照组。此外，个体比较显示，在（单独比划、单独模仿或两种情况下均存在失用症）所描述的三种失用症模式中，PPA患者中最常见的模式是两种情况下均存在失用症。这一结果与之前中风和阿尔茨海默病患者群体的研究结果一致。考虑到该人群中失用症的发生情况，本研究支持在PPA病例中应进行全面失用症评估的观点。
