Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0013362 (dysarthria)
 3,768 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This review analyzes the spectrum of language deficits commonly encountered in dementia. A specific communication profile is found in dementia of the "cortical" type, such as Alzheimer's disease. With advancing disease lexical, comprehension and pragmatic functions deteriorate, whereas syntax and phonology tend to be preserved. This pattern bears some resemblance to aphasia types like transcortical and Wernicke's aphasia, however, a much broader range of communicative functions is impaired in Alzheimer's disease than in aphasia. Differentiation of dementia and aphasia, especially in elderly patients requires careful neuropsychological assessment of language, memory and other psychological functions. "Subcortical" dementia commonly presents with dysarthria as the leading symptom and linguistic impairment is rarely of crucial importance until late stages. Thus, the interetiologic dissociation of language and speech impairment can be used for dementia differentiation. Aphasia batteries are not sufficient to comprehend the range of language deficits in demented patients. Testing the communication impairment in dementia requires specific tasks for spontaneous speech, naming, comprehension, reading, writing, repetition and motor speech functions. Tasks for verbal learning and metalinguistic abilities should also be performed. Language deficits are frequent initial symptoms of dementia, thus language assessment may be of diagnostic relevance. Many data support the concept that the communication deficit in dementia results from a particular impairment of semantic memory.
 ...
PMID:[Speech changes in dementia]. 169 87

Twenty five cases of subcortical aphasia of vascular origin (15 haemorrhagic, 10 ischaemic), have been studied in detail by means of neurolinguistic and brain-scanning approaches. The neurolinguistic investigation allowed three groups to be distinguished. Group 1 comprised 4 cases of dysarthria. Group 2 was made up of 9 classical syndromes of aphasia: 2 global aphasias, 3 Broca's aphasias, 3 cases of Wernicke's aphasia and 1 case of conduction aphasia. Group 3 consisted in 12 unusual aphasic syndromes, i.e. 2 mixed aphasias and 10 cases which did not correspond with any traditional semiological description and are spoken of as "dissident" (or anomalous) cases. The CT scan results revealed a wide range of focal lesions for the same clinical syndrome; the 10 "dissident" cases were, in particular, associated with a large variety of lesions. After a discussion of the anatomical limits of the subcortical lesions, 2 points emerge: 1) in the current state of technological experience no anatomo-clinical correlation can be drawn as regards language-deficiencies of subcortical origin. 2) in almost half the cases a "unique" syndrome of aphasia has been observed and described, which at first might suggest the diagnosis of a subcortical lesion.
 ...
PMID:[Subcortical aphasia. Neruolinguistic and x-ray computed tomography studies of 25 cases]. 608 81