The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	Progressive non-fluent aphasia
Language	J
AuthorList	Mika Otsuki
Affiliation	School of Psychological Sciences, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 26 (4), 272-282, 2010
Received
Accepted
Abstract	One of the reasons why progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA) remains heterogenic syndrom is vagueness of definition of 'non-fluent' aphasia. It should be clarified whether the patient show anarthria (=apraxia of speech) or not regarding evaluation of speech output. We investigated the neurological and neuropsychological features of the patients with PNFA and classified them into three subgroups which could predict the subsequent clinical course. One is the type which manifests Broca's aphasia or transcortical motor aphasia. The main features of the patient of this type is severe word finding difficulty. Almost all the patients developed anarthria but not so severe. This type developed clinical features similar to behavioural variant FTD in 3∼5 years after onset. The other type shows anterior operculum syndrome, which shows dysphagia simultaneously with speech impairment. This type shows rapid decline and become impossible to have oral nutrition in 2∼5 years. The other type only develops pure anarthria without any other symptoms for many years. We concluded that these clinical classification could predict the following clinical prognosis of the patients and useful.
Keywords	progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA), anarthria (apraxia of speech), anterior operculum syndrome, pure anarthria (anarthrie pure), frontotemporal lober degeneration (FTLD)