Alzheimer's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Alzheimer's Disease, including details on diagnosis, memory loss, heredity, treatment, medication.

Late-onset frontotemporal dementia associated with progressive supranuclear palsy/argyrophilic grain disease/Alzheimer's disease pathology.

Rippon GA, Boeve BF, Parisi JE, Dickson DW, Ivnik RI, Jack CR, Hutton M, Baker M, Josephs KA, Knopman DS, Petersen RC

Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is typically manifested by vertical supranuclear gaze palsy, frequent falls early in the disease course, axial rigidity and poor response to levodopa. Prominent anterograde memory dysfunction with subsequent impairment in other cognitive domains is characteristic of Alzheimer's disease (AD). No clear clinical syndrome has been identified in argyrophilic grain disease (AGD). Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is characterized by apathy, emotional blunting, disinhibition, and impairment in executive functioning despite relatively preserved memory and visuospatial abilities. Cognitive deficits are known to occur in PSP; however, overt clinical FTD without parkinsonism or supranuclear gaze palsy associated with PSP pathology has rarely been documented. We report an elderly patient with the typical clinical, neuropsychometric, and neuroimaging features of FTD who had autopsy findings most consistent with PSP plus AGD and AD in limbic structures. We suggest that PSP with or without coexisting AD and AGD be included in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with FTD.

Published 11 July 2005 in Neurocase, 11(3): 204-11.
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