Jargonagraphia in a case of frontotemporal dementia.

Jargonagraphia is known to occur after discrete brain lesions but not in primary degenerative dementia. We report a patient with frontotemporal dementia who developed jargonagraphia and nonfluent aphasia. Written output was graphically preserved but consisted of short words intermingled with abstruse neologisms. MRI showed predominant right frontotemporal cortical atrophy accompanied by white matter hyperintensities in the right anterior subcallosal periventricular region. Diagnosis and MRI were corroborated by extensive neuropathological findings obtained 8 months later. The agraphia in this case is discussed with reference to both specific macroscopic and microscopic pathoanatomical lesions. We suggest that jargonagraphia can appear in frontotemporal dementia depending on the localization of lesions.