Activities of Daily Living in Progressive Non-Fluent Aphasia, Logopenic Progressive Aphasia and Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Background/Aims: This study examined functional changes in progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA) and logopenic progressive aphasia (LPA) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the association between function, cognition and behaviour. Methods: 59 patients were assessed with the Disability Assessment of Dementia (DAD), Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination Revised (ACE-R) and the Cambridge Behavioural Inventory Revised (CBI-R). Results: No differences between groups in basic and instrumental activities of daily living (ADLs), and total ACE-R scores were found; there were correlations between total DAD and ACE-R scores for PNFA and LPA. Over 12 months, PNFA showed the marked decline of basic ADLs, whereas all three groups showed marked decline of instrumental ADLs. Conclusion: PNFA, LPA and AD appear functionally similar when matched for disease duration. The rate of decline of ADLs depends, however, on disease diagnosis.

Longitudinal Changes in Primary Progressive Aphasias: Differences in Cognitive and Dementia Staging Measures

“…We expected that the svPPA and naPPA would differ significantly in the rate of decline on the ACE-R and FRS in comparison with an AD group. The longitudinal course of lvPPA was expected to be somewhat in between naPPA and AD, given previous findings [20].…”

“…In the semantic and non-fluent variants of PPA, decline on the ACE-R and FRS was evident over 12 months, with no differences in the rate of decline between the two groups [18,19]. lvPPA is newly recognised and no longitudinal study exists on the FRS to date; on the ACE-R, a significant decline was detected after 12 months [20]. Nor have comparisons been made with an AD cohort despite a degree of pathological overlap with PPA.…”

Validation of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III in Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease

“…This lack of a strong association is not surprising given that the FTDFRS contains items which assess neuropsychiatric symptoms and everyday skills. While the ACE-III is valuable in diagnostic studies and is likely to parallel the ACE-R as an index of progression [5,32,33] in FTD, it should be used in conjunction with the FTDFRS.…”

The Relationship between Behavioural Changes, Cognitive Symptoms, and Functional Disability in Primary Progressive Aphasia: A Longitudinal Study

“…Recently, it has been described that decline in everyday function in LPA is initially limited to instrumental ADLs, in contrast to nfvPPA which shows more generalized decline across both basic and instrumental ADLs [6]. Similarly, longitudinal functional changes may be more marked in nfvPPA than in svPPA, but the factors behind these are not well known [7,8,9,10].…”