[Alexia without agraphia due to the lesion in the right occipital lobe in a right-handed man. Detection of hemispheric lateralization of handedness and language in a right-handed patient].
METHODS
A 65 year-old man, right-handed, without any family history of left handiness, suddenly developed a left homonymous hemianopia and incapacity for reading. Neurological and neuropsychological examinations showed the presence of a profound alexia with preservation of writing to dictation and spontaneously. He was unable to read what he had written. He could spell the words letter by letter but he was unable to read the complete word. MRI showed an extensive infarct in the territory of the right posterior cerebral artery. The infarct extended anteriously to the right thalamus and to the medial temporal fifth or fusiform gyrus. The splenius was spared. Brain SPECT disclosed the area of the infarct and an extensive area of decreased cerebral perfusion over the right parietal and temporal areas.


CONCLUSIONS
Alexia without agraphia has been reported in right-handed patients with left occipital lesions and in right occipital regions in left-handed patients but rarely if ever in right occipital lesions in right-handed patients.
Estañol
B
B
Departamento de Neurología y Psiquiatría, Instituto Nacional de la Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Tlalpan, Méjico DF, Méjico.
Vega-Boada
F
F
Corte-Franco
G
G
Juárez
S
S
Hernández
R
R
García-Ramos
G
G
D000368:Aged; D000381:Agraphia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000098:blood supply / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon