Posterior cortical atrophy as an extreme phenotype of GRN mutations.

IMPORTANCE

Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is characterized by progressive visuoperceptual and visuospatial deficits and commonly considered to be an atypical variant of Alzheimer disease. Mutations of the GRN gene are responsible for a large phenotypic spectrum, but, to our knowledge, the association of PCA with GRN mutations has never been described.

OBSERVATIONS

We studied a patient presenting with insidious impairment of basic visuoperceptual skills and apperceptive visual agnosia with predominant posterior atrophy corresponding to a visual/ventral variant of PCA. A heterozygous p.Arg110* (c.328C>T) GRN mutation was identified in this patient.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

This study extends the clinical spectrum of GRN mutations that may be responsible for a PCA phenotype. The GRN phenotypes overlap other degenerative dementias and highlight the limits of actual nosologic boundaries in dementias. The GRN gene should be analyzed in patients with PCA, particularly when the damage progresses to anterior cerebral regions and a family history of dementia is present.