Controversy still surrounds the issue of whether slowly progressive aphasia should be grouped with the dementias or if it constitutes a disease entity. Three patients with slowly progressive aphasia were studied in relation to their progress and evaluation. Initially all three had a non-fluent aphasia with relative preservation of non-verbal cognitive abilities and activities of daily living (ADLs). The diagnosis of slowly progressive aphasia in our patients predicted a course of illness with increasing attrition of cognitive abilities and occurrence of behavioral and neurological deficits embedded in the language dysfunction, culminating in dementia. The progression was not uniform. Slowly progressive aphasia reflects a manifestation of different neurodegenerative processes in this study.
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