• Karin Zazo Ortiz, Juliana Onofre De Lira, Thais Soares Ciariancullo Minett, and Paulo Henrique Ferreira Bertolucci.
• Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Electronic address: karin.ortiz@unifesp.br.
• Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2024 Jan 1; 79: 100412100412.

ObjectiveTo investigate how language deteriorates over the Alzheimer's Disease course.MethodsA cross-sectional, observational study was carried out. 35 patients diagnosed with dementia due to AD using the NINCDS-ARDRA criteria and undergoing treatment for AD with a therapeutic dose of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors were assessed by the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE). The sample comprised 15 patients with mild AD (MMSE > 23, CDR = 0 or 0.5‒1.0) and 20 patients with moderate AD (MMSE = 13‒23, CDR = 2). The results for the 2 groups on all language tasks were compared.ResultsA statistically significant difference was found between the mild and moderate AD groups for total score on the BDAE (95% CI 47.10‒114.08, t = 5.0, DF = 21, p = 0.000*), as well as on several tasks involving oral and writing comprehension, language oral expression and writing.ConclusionThe study results showed major changes in the moderate stage. Also, the decline in language performance correlated with the worsening of dementia syndrome, independently of sociodemographic variables.Copyright © 2024 HCFMUSP. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

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