Primary progressive non-fluent aphasia: a case study

A case study of a 65 year old man is described with an eight-year history of progressive primary non-fluent aphasia accompanied by agrammatism, phonemic paraphasias and mild spelling dysgraphia. His naming ability, however, has remained at an exceptionally high level and there has been no evidence of impairment of word or sentence comprehension. Non-verbal skills and memory functions have also been preserved within the range of his very high premorbid level of abilities. Single photon emission computed tomography was consistent with bifrontal hypoperfusion. We argue that the selective language deficits in this patient are characteristic of dynamic aphasia and of other speech disturbances which are also known to be associated with left frontal lesions. The possible underlying pathology is discussed in the context of known degenerative disorders.