Brodeur Catherine, Belley Émilie, Deschênes Lisa-Marie, Enriquez-Rosas Adriana, Hubert Michelyne, Guimond Anik, Bilodeau Josée, Soucy Jean-Paul, Macoir Joël
Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montreal, QC H3W 1W5, Canada.
Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC H3T 1J4, Canada.
Life (Basel). 2022 Apr 29;12(5):662. doi: 10.3390/life12050662.
Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a clinico-radiological syndrome characterized by a progressive decline in visuospatial/visuoperceptual processing. PCA is accompanied by the impairment of other cognitive functions, including language abilities.
The present study focused on three patients presenting with language complaints and a clinical profile that was compatible with PCA. In addition to neurological and neuroimaging examinations, they were assessed with comprehensive batteries of neuropsychological and neurolinguistic tests.
The general medical profile of the three patients is consistent with PCA, although they presented with confounding factors, making diagnosis less clear. The cognitive profile of the three patients was marked by Balint and Gerstmann's syndromes as well as impairments affecting executive functions, short-term and working memory, visuospatial and visuoperceptual abilities, and sensorimotor execution abilities. Their language ability was characterized by word-finding difficulties and impairments of sentence comprehension, sentence repetition, verbal fluency, narrative speech, reading, and writing.
This study confirmed that PCA is marked by visuospatial and visuoperceptual deficits and reported evidence of primary and secondary language impairments in the three patients. The similarities of some of their language impairments with those found in the logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia is discussed from neurolinguistic and neuroanatomical points of view.
后部皮质萎缩（PCA）是一种临床放射学综合征，其特征为视觉空间/视觉感知处理能力逐渐下降。PCA还伴有包括语言能力在内的其他认知功能损害。
本研究聚焦于三名有语言主诉且临床特征符合PCA的患者。除了进行神经学和神经影像学检查外，还使用全面的神经心理学和神经语言学测试组对他们进行评估。
这三名患者的总体医学特征与PCA相符，尽管他们存在一些混杂因素，使得诊断不太明确。这三名患者的认知特征表现为巴林特综合征和格斯特曼综合征，以及影响执行功能、短期和工作记忆、视觉空间和视觉感知能力以及感觉运动执行能力的损害。他们的语言能力表现为找词困难以及句子理解、句子重复、言语流畅性、叙事性言语、阅读和写作方面的损害。
本研究证实PCA以视觉空间和视觉感知缺陷为特征，并报告了这三名患者存在原发性和继发性语言损害的证据。从神经语言学和神经解剖学角度讨论了他们的一些语言损害与原发性进行性失语的语音变异型中发现的语言损害的相似性。
