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Cerebral blood flow in thalamic aphasia

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Summary

A 59-year-old man is reported, who became aphasic after left thalamic infarction, shown by CT. His speech was fluent, with reduced voice volume, impaired auditory and reading comprehension, verbal paraphasias but intact repetition skills. A single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scan to measure regional cerebral flow (rCBF) showed a reduction of flow in the parietotemporal areas of the left hemisphere. It is suggested that thalamic aphasia could result from structural subcortical damage with a homolateral functional cortical deficit leading to the specific aphasic disturbance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Divisione di Neurologia, Ospedale A. Cardarelli, Via A. Cardarelli, I-80131, Napoli, Italy

    A. M. Fasanaro, D. L. A. Spitaleri & R. Valiani

  2. Istituto di Medicina Interna e Malattie dismetaboliche, II. Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Napoli, Italy

    A. Postiglione

  3. Cattedra di Medicina Nucleare, Istituto di Scienz Radiologiche, II. Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia — Servizio di Medicina Nucleare, Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Fondazione Pascale, Napoli, Italy

    A. Soricelli & L. Mansi

  4. Clinica Neurologica, II. Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Napoli, Italy

    D. Grossi

Authors
  1. A. M. Fasanaro
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  2. D. L. A. Spitaleri
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  3. R. Valiani
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  4. A. Postiglione
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  5. A. Soricelli
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  6. L. Mansi
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  7. D. Grossi
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Fasanaro, A.M., Spitaleri, D.L.A., Valiani, R. et al. Cerebral blood flow in thalamic aphasia. J Neurol 234, 421–423 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00314089

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00314089

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