AUTHOR=Epelbaum Stéphane , Saade Yasmina Michel , Flamand Roze Constance , Roze Emmanuel , Ferrieux Sophie , Arbizu Céline , Nogues Marie , Azuar Carole , Dubois Bruno , Tezenas du Montcel Sophie , Teichmann Marc 

TITLE=A Reliable and Rapid Language Tool for the Diagnosis, Classification, and Follow-Up of Primary Progressive Aphasia Variants

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.571657

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2020.571657

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> Primary progressive aphasias (PPA) have been investigated by clinical, therapeutic, and fundamental research but examiner-consistent language tests for reliable reproducible diagnosis and follow-up are lacking.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> We developed and evaluated a rapid language test for PPA (“PARIS”) assessing its inter-examiner consistency, its power to detect and classify PPA, and its capacity to identify language decline after a follow-up of 9 months. To explore the reliability and specificity/sensitivity of the test it was applied to PPA patients (<italic>N</italic> = 36), typical amnesic Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (<italic>N</italic> = 24) and healthy controls (<italic>N</italic> = 35), while comparing it to two rapid examiner-consistent language tests used in stroke-induced aphasia (“LAST”, “ART”).</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> The application duration of the “PARIS” was ~10 min and its inter-rater consistency was of 88%. The three tests distinguished healthy controls from AD and PPA patients but only the “PARIS” reliably separated PPA from AD and allowed for classifying the two most frequent PPA variants: semantic and logopenic PPA. Compared to the “LAST” and “ART,” the “PARIS” also had the highest sensitivity for detecting language decline.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> The “PARIS” is an efficient, rapid, and highly examiner-consistent language test for the diagnosis, classification, and follow-up of frequent PPA variants. It might also be a valuable tool for providing end-points in future therapeutic trials on PPA and other neurodegenerative diseases affecting language processing.</p>