Frequency of aphasia resulting from stroke at hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Aphasia is common symptom after acute stroke with a prevalence in earlier studies between 21 - 38%. In Iran; unfortunately no investigation has been reported on the prevalence of aphasia. So the main aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of aphasia after stroke at hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of medical sciences (TUMS). This study is a cross-sectional design and has been done on 30 patients with brain injury who admitted to TUMS hospitals during three months. The Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MAST) was used to screening aphasia patients. The descriptive results indicated, from 22 patients with CVA five cases (22.7%) were aphasic. Mean age of aphasic patients (69.6 years) was more than non-aphasic patients (49.24 years) and of five aphasic patients, three cases (60%) were male and two of them (40%) were female. Also, regarding background diseases, four of five (80%) aphasic patients had history of high blood pressure and diabetes. Results of this study was consistent with prevalence of aphasia in last studies. Also results of this study confirmed other studies based on that etiology of lesion, age, and high blood pressure and diabetes history of the patients plays an important role in prevalence of aphasia.