Subcortical Aphasia in Stroke Patients

Joo, Byung Gyu; Yoon, Se Jin; Chun, Min Ho

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
The purposes of this study were to identify the incidence of subcortical aphasia and to investigate the different linguistic characteristics and prognosis. METHOD: Twenty-nine stroke patients(18 men and 11 women) with aphasia were investigated in the study. On the basis of the findings of brain CT and MRI images, the patients were divided into either cortical aphasia group or subcortical aphasia group. Fifteen cortical aphasia patients and 14 subcortical aphasia patients underwent an aphasia screening test. Fluency, comprehension, speech, naming, repetition, reading, and writing abilities were evaluated as the modalities of language. All patients received the speech therapy and were reevaluated at three months after the initial evaluation.
RESULTS
The incidence of subcortical aphasia was 48.3% of all aphasia patients from the stroke. Subcortical aphasia patients showed more variable types of aphasia and less linguistic damage than the cortical aphasia patients. The prognosis of subcortical aphasia patients was better than the cortical aphasia patients. Especially the cases of global aphasia from the subcortical lesions showed a rapid recovery and good prognosis.
CONCLUSION
Early recognition of the subcortical aphasia and a comprehensive speech therapy would be beneficial for the improvement of linguistic function in the subcortical aphasia patients.