Vasectomy in men with primary progressive aphasia.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To study the frequency of vasectomy in men with primary progressive aphasia (PPA).

BACKGROUND:

PPA is a dementia syndrome in which aphasia emerges in relative isolation during the initial stages of illness. On the basis of a clinical observation in a patient who dated the onset of symptoms to the period after a vasectomy, and because of the curious sharing of the tau protein exclusively by brain and sperm, vasectomy rates were examined in men with PPA.

METHOD:

This study used a case control design. Forty-seven men with PPA and 57 men with no cognitive impairment (NC) between 55 and 80 years of age were surveyed about a history of vasectomy.

RESULTS:

The age-adjusted rate of vasectomy in PPA patients (40%) was higher than in NC (16%, P=0.02). There was a younger age at onset for the patients with vasectomy (58.8 vs. 62.9 y, P=0.03).

CONCLUSIONS:

Vasectomy may constitute one risk factor for PPA in men. Potential mechanisms mediating risk include vasectomy-induced immune responses to sperm, which shares antigenic epitopes with brain. Antisperm antibodies can also develop in women and become risk factors for PPA.

• Authors: Sandra Weintraub, Christopher Fahey, Nancy Johnson, Marek-Marsel Mesulam, Darren R Gitelman, Bing B Weitner, Alfred Rademaker
• Journal: Cognitive and behavioral neurology : official journal of the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology (Cogn Behav Neurol) Vol. 19 Issue 4 Pg. 190-3 (Dec 2006) ISSN: 1543-3633 [Print] United States
• PMID: 17159614 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural)

Topics

• Aged
• Aphasia, Primary Progressive (epidemiology)
• Case-Control Studies
• Causality
• Chicago (epidemiology)
• Humans
• Incidence
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Risk Factors
• Vasectomy (adverse effects, statistics & numerical data)