Primary Progressive Aphasia: Relationship Between Gender... : Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology (original) (raw)

Original Studies

Primary Progressive Aphasia: Relationship Between Gender and Severity of Language Impairment

Rogalski, Emily BA*; Rademaker, Alfred PhD* †; Weintraub, Sandra PhD* ‡

*Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center

Departments of †Preventive Medicine

‡Psychiatry, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL

Supported by Alzheimer's Disease Center Grant AG13854 NIA and The Cellular and Behavioral Aspects of Aging and Dementia Training Grant AG20506 Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.

Reprints: Emily Rogalski, BA, 320 E. Superior Street, Searle Building 11-453, Chicago, IL 60611 (e-mail: [email protected]).

Received for publication April 10, 2006; accepted November 2, 2006

Abstract

Background/Aims

Factors influencing the course and severity of symptoms in primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a language-based dementia, have not been fully elucidated. The current study examined the influence of gender on performance on tests of naming and verbal fluency in patients with PPA. Comparisons were also made within a group of probable Alzheimer disease (AD) patients to determine whether gender differences were present in the most common form of neurodegenerative dementia.

Methods

Performance was compared by gender within each diagnostic group on 3 language measures: the Boston Naming Test, category fluency (animals), and lexical fluency (FAS). Scores were compared at baseline (Visit 1) and in a subset of participants 6 to 15 months later (Visit 2).

Results

Compared to men, women with PPA demonstrated significantly greater impairment on word fluency tests at both visits and also had a more aggressive rate of decline between visits. AD patients showed no differences by gender on any measure.

Conclusions

The results suggest gender-based vulnerability in PPA where women express more severe language impairments than men given a similar duration of illness.