Aphasia assessment and functional outcome prediction in patients with aphasia after stroke

Available studies did not clarify whether a language examination may predict functional and motor outcome in patients with aphasia undergoing rehabilitation. This was the aim of the current study. Language examination considered in this study was the Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT). One hundred fifty-six patients with a primary diagnosis of acute cerebrovascular accident of left hemisphere were included: 105 with and 51 without aphasia. Backward stepwise regression analysis was used to predict final scores in total-, motor-, and cognitive-Functional Independence Measure (FIM). The independent variables were age, gender, stroke type, stroke lesion size, onset to admission interval, National Institute of Health Stroke Scale, Fugl-Meyer Scale, Trunk Control Test, initial motor-FIM, and AAT (spontaneous speech, token test, repetition, written language, confrontation naming, comprehension). In the multivariate regression analysis, comprehension was the only function of the language to be predictor of the final total-FIM (β = +0.35) and final cognitive-FIM (β = +0.61). Comprehension was a predictor of total-FIM (β = +0.27) and cognitive-FIM (β = +0.54) as well, when additional backward stepwise regression analysis (which did not include comprehension and expression scores in the final total- and cognitive-FIM) was performed. When multivariate regression analysis took into consideration only language functions as independent variables, spontaneous speech (β = +0.41) only was the predictor of motor-FIM. The study highlights that AAT is the predictor of functional outcome in the patient with aphasia. Among the functions of language, comprehension seems to be the most important predictive factor of total- and cognitive-FIM, while spontaneous speech seems to be a predictor of motor-FIM.