Is slowly progressive aphasia actually a new clinical entity?

We report detailed observations on a 54-year-old woman who presented with a slowly progressive aphasia of the Broca type without signs of deterioration. She was administered standardized language and cognitive neuropsychological tests over a period of 2 years. A study of the brain glucose metabolism by PET scan indicated an isolated left temporal hypometabolism. From a review of the published cases and our own study, we propose that these cases could be considered a variant of Alzheimer's or Pick's diseases, the latter in our own case.