Topographic Evaluation of Aphasia in 100 Stroke Patients

Aphasia is a common manifestation of stroke and evaluation of relationships of aphasia and brain topography could lead to better understanding of cognitive neurophysiology.

100 stroke patients with aphasia admitted in Valie-Asr hospital, Khorasan since April 2003 were enrolled in this prospective cross-sectional study. Diagnosis of stroke and aphasia was made by a neurologist and topography of involved cerebrovascular territories confirmed by topographic maps of brain in CT scan.

Global, Broca and Wernicke subtypes of aphasia constituted 52%, 40% and 6% of the cases, respectively. Based on the usual nourishment of Broca and Wernicke areas by anterior and posterior cortical branches of the middle cerebral artery, 79% of Global, 47% of Broca and 50% of Wernicke aphasias had compatible infarct topography. The infarct topography in other cases was not congruent with the involved linguistic areas of their brain.

Specific cerebrovascular topography for subtypes of aphasia in stroke patients was not found. The effects of cerebrovascular lesions on linguistic functions are not predictable by their topography in CT scan.