Articles: aphasia-etiology.
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To evaluate language deficits after acute stroke and their association with post-acute care at a setting other than home. We hypothesized that deficits in language comprehension would be associated with discharge to a setting other than home after adjustment for physical/occupational therapy (PT/OT) needs. ⋯ Cases with deficits in auditory comprehension, reading comprehension, and oral spelling to dictation had increased odds of being discharged to settings other than home. Early evaluation of these language deficits and prompt treatment may allow patients who would otherwise be discharged to an institution to go home. Further research is needed to design and evaluate individualized treatment protocols and their effect on discharge recommendations.
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Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is typically considered to be a visual syndrome, primarily characterised by progressive impairment of visuoperceptual and visuospatial skills. However, patients commonly describe early difficulties with word retrieval. This paper details the first systematic analysis of linguistic function in PCA. Characterising and quantifying the aphasia associated with PCA is important for clarifying diagnostic and selection criteria for clinical and research studies. ⋯ The study demonstrates that in addition to the well reported degradation of vision, literacy and numeracy, PCA is characterised by progressive oral language dysfunction with prominent word retrieval difficulties. Overlap in the linguistic profiles of PCA and LPA, which are both most commonly caused by Alzheimer's disease, further emphasises the notion of a phenotypic continuum between typical and atypical manifestations of the disease. Clarifying the boundaries between Alzheimer's disease phenotypes has important implications for diagnosis, clinical trial recruitment and investigations into biological factors driving phenotypic heterogeneity in Alzheimer's disease. Rehabilitation strategies to ameliorate the phonological deficit in PCA are required.
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Clin Neurol Neurosurg · Mar 2013
Prognosis of aphasia in stroke patients early after iv thrombolysis.
Stroke patients with aphasia have a high long-term morbidity. Intravenous rt-PA (iv) thrombolysis is given more deliberately to these patients. Early outcome data is lacking. Aim of this study was to determine early benefit from rt-PA in patients with aphasia. ⋯ EICs are not predictive of aphasia outcome and patients with improvement showed smaller infarct volumes. One third improved within 24h, while two thirds remained unchanged. This might justify a closer follow-up of aphasia in stroke patients at the acute stage.