Abstract

Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a clinico-radiological syndrome that is initially characterized by visual disturbances and other posterior cognitive deficits, and late involvement of memory functions. This report details a case of a 58-year-old woman with 7 years of delay in the diagnosis and that began with alterations in reading and writing, later visuospatial alterations and visual agnosias were added and finally showed memory and language disturbances. Neurological, neuropsychological, structural neuroimaging and quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) studies was performed. Neuropsychological evaluation showed severe reading and writing disorders, acalculia, right-left disorientation (Gertsmann syndrome) and ideomotor apraxia, but also showed attentional, mnemonic, language and memory alterations. Neuroimaging study showed generalized cortical atrophy with predominance in the posterior parietal regions, and qEEG showed marked decrease in the absolute power in all channels mainly in temporal and occipital derivations. PCA should be suspected in patients with unexplained progressive visual disturbances. Neuropsychological, neuroimaging and qEEG studies may be inexpensive and accessible tools to support the diagnosis.