Background: Primary progressive aphasia is a degenerative disease of nervous system clinically characterized by the progressive decrease of speech ability and the relatively reserved memory. Objective: To investigate the characteristics of speech dysfunction and the clinical features of primary progressive aphasia we by reported one1 patient with primary progressive aphasia. Design: A case analysis. Setting: Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital affiliated to Capital University of Medical Sciences. Participant: One male patient of 56 years old with primary progressive aphasia was selected from the Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital in March 2004, he had got education in senior middle school. The patient had been unable to tell the names of daily living objects at the beginning of 2001. Not only his ability of listening comprehension had gradually declined, but his characters had gradually changed except that his memory had not been affected obviously since 2003. Although he was able in self-care now, he could not normally work. Methods: 1 The spoken fluent types of the patient were evaluated with the standards for the fluency of spoken language in Aphasia battery of Chinese. Western battery aphasia was used to assess the type of aphasia of the patient. Boston diagnostic aphasia examination severity grading standard was applied to grade the severity of aphasia. 2 The cognitive psychological tests of visual character-figure matching, denomination for figures and oral reading were used to judge whether the patient had verb-noun dissociation. 3 The memory of the patient was assessed with clinical memory scale. Main outcome measures: 1 spoken fluency, the type and grade of aphasia; 2 condition of verb-noun dissociation for the patient; 3 memory of the patient. Results: 1 Examination of aphasia: The patient presented the spontaneous talking that named the fluent type, there were wrong meanings in his talks so that he was diagnosed as sensory aphasia. The severity of aphasia was separated into grade 3 levels. 2 Cognitive psychological test: The correct rates of verbs and nouns in the test of denomination for figures were 15% and 53% respectively, and there was obvious difference (t=0.231, P < 0.05). 3 Clinical memory scale: The memory quotient was 111, and the clinical memory grade was higher than normal. Conclusion: The most outstanding clinical characteristics of patients with primary progressive aphasia is speech dysfunction, and there is verb specific injury.