Neuroanatomic correlation of the post-stroke aphasias studied with imaging.
OBJECTIVE
Stroke is the leading cause of disability in many countries. Aphasia is a common sign of stroke that is observed in about one-third of stroke patients and contributes to disease morbidity. However, the relationship between anatomy and different forms of aphasia remains poorly understood. We intend to study the characteristics of aphasia in the acute stage of stroke and to identify neuroanatomical correlates using MRI.


METHODS
Lesion sites were selected from 1198 patients with cerebral infarction, who were hospitalized in the stroke unit of our hospital between March 2002 and March 2006. We enrolled 325 patients who fulfilled our criteria. All patients received an MRI examination within 1 week after admission and were evaluated with the Western battery aphasia (WAB) test, in order to determine what type of aphasia they had. The severity of their language deficit was further classified using the Boston diagnostic aphasia examination (BDAE) severity grading standard.


RESULTS
Among 1198 cases, five cases with Broca's areas and four cases with Wernicke's areas lesions on MRI works were free of language deficits. Within the 325 patients who demonstrated clinical signs of aphasia, the results of WAB showed that there were 83 Broca' aphasia cases, 48 Wernicke's aphasia cases, 12 conduction aphasia cases, 36 transcortical motor aphasia cases, 17 transcortical sensory aphasia cases, 19 transcortical mixed aphasia cases, 58 global aphasia cases and 52 anomic aphasia cases. Two hundred and eighty-eight cases were located within classical language centers while 37 cases were located at other sites. In 325 aphasia patients with grade criteria of BDAE of grades 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4, there were 84, 79, 77, 63 and 22 cases respectively. Many of cases with grades 0 and 1 were distributed within classical language centers.


CONCLUSIONS
This study showed that it is possible to draw a neuroanatomical map of aphasia that encompasses the 95% of aphasia cases. It also demonstrates that the main determinant of aphasic disorders is the neuroanatomical location of the lesion. Furthermore, this study shows that most lesion locations associated with specific aphasic disorders fit classical data associated with previous aphasia research. More importantly, the language disorders of patients whose lesions were located at classical language centers were more serious. Consequently, this paper demonstrates the power of MRI in prognosticating the potential for a patient to recover from aphasia due to stroke.
Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100050, China.
Zhong-Hua
ZH
Yang
Xing-Quan
XQ
Zhao
Chun-Xue
CX
Wang
Hong-Yan
HY
Chen
Yu-Mei
YM
Zhang
D000368:Aged; D001039:Aphasia, Broca / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001041:Aphasia, Wernicke / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011379:Prognosis; D020127:Recovery of Function; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology