PPAs usually affect individuals aged between 60 and 80 years. —and patients usually have a median survival of 10 years. They are classically divided into three subtypes.
Logopenic APP It is characterized by a difficulty in finding words, as if they were on the “tip of the tongue”, but with preservation of semantic knowledge, that is, the patient knows what it is about, but is unable to speak the precise name and ends up describing it. . “An example would be not to name the pen, but to recognize it as such, inform its characteristics and know its usefulness”, explains Gleizer. The condition may be a presentation form of Alzheimer’s. But, in this case, along with aphasia there is impairment in other cognitive domains, such as memory or visual-spatial functions.
semantic APP The person loses the ability not only to name, but also to recognize the concept and meaning of words and objects. “For example: you don’t know what a pen is, which category the object belongs to or what it is for”, describes the neurologist.
Non-fluent or ungrammatical APP The patient loses the fluidity of speech, which becomes telegraphic. He also presents an inability to respect grammatical laws — with syntactic errors in sentences and a lack of connecting grammatical elements — and shows serious impairment in writing. He also has difficulty articulating phonemes, which manifests as “stuttered” speech.
Regardless of the subtype, patients with AAP may develop neuropsychiatric symptoms over the years, such as behavioral changes, aggression, apathy or anxiety. René Gleizer, neurologist
How to diagnose
Gleizer states that the way to diagnose these pathologies begins with the clinical presentation and history compatible with the symptoms described. A detailed neurological, cognitive and language assessment is then carried out. Finally, additional tests are requested in order to rule out differential diagnoses and confirm our hypothesis.
