title: Effect of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage on word generation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) survivors commonly exhibit impairment on phonemic and semantic fluency tests; however, it is unclear which of the contributing cognitive processes are compromised in aSAH patients. One method of disentangling these processes is to compare initial word production, which is a rapid, semiautomatic, frontal-executive process, and late phase word production, which is dependent on more effortful retrieval and lexical size and requires a more distributed neural network.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy-two individuals with aSAH and twenty-five control subjects were tested on a cognitive battery including the phonemic and semantic fluency task. Demographic and clinical information was also collected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to control subjects, patients with aSAH were treated by clipping and those with multiple aneurysms were impaired across the duration of the phonemic test. Among patients treated by coiling, those with anterior communicating artery aneurysms or a neurological complication (intraventricular hemorrhage, vasospasm, and edema) showed worse output only in the last 45 seconds of the phonemic test. Patients performed comparably to control subjects on the semantic test.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results support a "diffuse damage" hypothesis of aSAH, indicated by late phase phonemic fluency impairment. Overall, the phonemic and semantic tests represent a viable, rapid clinical screening tool in the postoperative assessment of patients with aSAH.
authors.affiliation: Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5B 1T8.
authors.forename: Daniella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ladowski
authors.affiliation: Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5B 1T8.
authors.forename: Winnie
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5B 1T8.
authors.forename: Anish N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Kapadia
authors.affiliation: Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5B 1T8 ; Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 1A8 ; Division of Neurosurgery, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada M5B 1W8.
authors.forename: R Loch
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.affiliation: Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5B 1T8 ; Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 1A8 ; Division of Neurosurgery, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada M5B 1W8 ; Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3G9.
authors.forename: Tom A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Schweizer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D057510:Endovascular Procedures; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013345:Subarachnoid Hemorrhage / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy