Relationship between the change of language symptoms and the change of regional cerebral blood flow in the recovery process of two children with acquired aphasia.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the change of language symptoms and the change of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the recovery process of two children with acquired aphasia caused by infarctions from Moyamoya disease with an onset age of 8years.


METHODS
We compared the results for the Standard Language Test of Aphasia (SLTA) with rCBF changes in 7 language regions in the left hemisphere and their homologous regions in the right hemisphere at 4 time points from 3weeks for up to 5years after the onset of aphasia, while controlling for the effect of age.


RESULTS
In both cases, strong correlations were seen within a hemisphere between adjacent regions or regions that are connected by neuronal fibers, and between some language regions in the left hemisphere and their homologous regions in the right hemisphere. Conversely, there were differences between the two cases in the time course of rCBF changes during their recovery process.


CONCLUSIONS
Consistent with previous studies, the current study suggested that both hemispheres were involved in the long-term recovery of language symptoms in children with acquired aphasia. We suggest that the differences between both cases during their recovery process might be influenced by the brain states before aphasia, by which hemisphere was affected, and by the timing of the surgical revascularization procedure. However, the changes were observed in the data obtained for rCBF with strong correlations with the changes in language performance, so it is possible that rCBF could be used as a biomarker for language symptom changes.
Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan; Graduate School of Human and Social Sciences, Musashino University, Japan; Children's Development and Human Health Department, Saitama Children's Medical Center, Japan. Electronic address: j_kozuka@musashino-u.ac.jp.
Junko
J
Kozuka
Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan.
Akira
A
Uno
Integrative Brain Imaging Center, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Japan.
Hiroshi
H
Matsuda
Department of Rehabilitation, Nagoya Higashi Hospital, Japan.
Yoshiya
Y
Toyoshima
Division of Neurology, Saitama Children's Medical Center, Japan.
Shin-Ichiro
SI
Hamano
D000293:Adolescent; D001037:Aphasia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D003545:Cysteine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; C059659:technetium Tc 99m bicisate; D003545:Cysteine
Children with acquired aphasia; Language symptoms; Recovery process; rCBF