Utility of the Repeat and Point Test for Subtyping Patients With Primary Progressive Aphasia

imageBackground:

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) may present with three distinct clinical sybtypes: semantic variant PPA (svPPA), nonfluent/agrammatic variant PPA (nfvPPA), and logopenic variant PPA (lvPPA).

Objective:

The aim was to examine the utility of the German version of the Repeat and Point (R&P) Test for subtyping patients with PPA.

Method:

During the R&P Test, the examiner reads out aloud a noun and the participants are asked to repeat the word and subsequently point to the corresponding picture. Data from 204 patients (68 svPPA, 85 nfvPPA, and 51 lvPPA) and 33 healthy controls were analyzed.

Results:

Controls completed both tasks with >90% accuracy. Patients with svPPA had high scores in repetition (mean=9.2±1.32) but low scores in pointing (mean=6±2.52). In contrast, patients with nfvPPA and lvPPA performed comparably in both tasks with lower…

Read more…