[An autopsy case of corticobasal degeneration with notable early onset apraxia: a case report and literature review focused on apraxia].

We report the autopsy case of a 74-year-old woman. Onset of gait disturbance and left-side dominant bilateral motor disturbance in the patient led to bilateral progressive apraxia. This was associated with a decline in motor imagery, right-side dominant atrophy of the central sulcus region, and a decrease in cerebral blood flow during illness. She died of respiratory failure that had progressively worsened over a 9-year period. Pathologically, she exhibited right-side dominant cerebral atrophy; neuronal loss, gliosis, and astrocytic plaques were mainly present in the frontal lobe. She was subsequently diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration (CBD). The premotor and primary motor areas revealed marked degeneration; in addition, severe myelin pallor was observed in these regions, and it was suggested that such pathological features were responsible for the apraxia. We believe the present case is valuable since very few reports have provided a detailed description of clinicopathological apraxia in association with CBD.