title: Global aphasia due to left thalamic hemorrhage.
abstract: Global aphasia is an acquired language disorder characterized by severe impairments in all modalities of language. The specific sites of injury commonly include Wernike's and Broca's areas and result from large strokes--particularly those involving the internal carotid or middle cerebral arteries. Rarely, deep subcortical lesions may cause global aphasia. We present three cases with global aphasia due to a more rare cause: left thalamic hemorrhage. Their common feature was the large size of the hemorrhage and its extension to the third ventricule. HMPAO-SPECT in one of the cases revealed ipsilateral subcortical, frontotemporal cortical and right frontal cortical hypoperfusion. Left thalamic hemorrhage should be considered in the differential diagnosis of global aphasia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Cukurova University School of Medicine, Adana, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ozeren
authors.forename: Filiz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Koc
authors.forename: Meltem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Demirkiran
authors.forename: Abdurrahman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sönmezler
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kibar
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001037:Aphasia / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020299:Intracranial Hemorrhage, Hypertensive / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D010291:Paresis / Q000150:complications; D013786:Thalamic Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed