NCT03313011

The Neurobiology of Two Distinct Types of Progressive Apraxia of Speech

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 47 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Mayo Clinic · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to identify and distinguish two different types of Progressive Apraxia of Speech through clinical imaging and testing.

Detailed description

Apraxia of speech (AOS) is a motor speech disorder reflecting a problem with the programming and/or planning of speech. AOS is well recognized in the context of stroke where onset is acute and the condition improves or is stable and chronic. AOS that is insidious in onset and progresses over time because of neurodegeneration is less well recognized and understood. For the past decade the investigators have been studying patients with primary progressive apraxia of speech (PAOS). They have demonstrated that it can be the earliest manifestation of an underlying neurodegenerative disease and have recently reported that the profile of PAOS characteristics can differ among affected patients. In some instances, the speech pattern is dominated by distorted sound substitutions and additions, and other features attributable to articulatory difficulty, while in other instances the pattern is dominated by slow, prosodically segmented speech. We have designated the first profile as Phonetic PAOS (Ph-PAOS) and the second as Prosodic PAOS (Pr-PAOS; previously referred to in our studies as type 1 and 2, respectively). Importantly, it appears that the AOS pattern type may have prognostic implications. In a recent longitudinal study, the investigators observed that in some PAOS patients, the AOS remained the most salient feature over an average of seven years of the neurodegenerative disease. Other patients developed a severe extrapyramidal syndrome, resembling progressive supranuclear palsy, within five years, causing significant morbidity, including the inability to ambulate and a shortened life span; interestingly, this more aggressive course was associated with the Pr- PAOS type. At present, little is known about these types. To address the main aim to better understand the neurobiology and clinical associations of PAOS types, they will perform longitudinal speech, language, and neurocognitive testing, acoustic analyses, neuroimaging, and autopsy in a cohort of 47 new PAOS patients (for 80 PAOS patients total) and healthy controls.

Conditions

• Apraxia of Speech
• Non-fluent Aphasia
• Primary Progressive Aphasia
• Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	Testing protocol for the study	All patients will see a Neurologist for a neuro exam and consult, see a Speech Pathologist for assessment of speech and language skills, see the Study Coordinator for neuropsych testing (brief tests of thinking, memory, visual spatial skills, etc), undergo an MRI of the brain and a DaTscan of the brain.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-08-01
• Primary completion: 2027-07-01
• Completion: 2027-07-01
• First posted: 2017-10-18
• Last updated: 2025-04-27

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States