[Left antero-medial thalamic infarction and symptoms of amnesia, aphasia, and dementia]

Three cases of left antero-medial thalamic infarction who showed amnesia, aphasia and dementia were studied comparatively in terms of clinical features and the MRI findings. Case 1 and Case 2, who showed transient amnesia and aphasia respectively, had a single lesion in the left antero-medial thalamus. Case 1 had a lesion in a more ventral part than Case 2, suggesting that Case 1 had a lesion of the bundles into the anterior and dorsomedial thalamic nuclei while Case 2 had a lesion of the ventrolateral thalamic nucleus. On the other hand, Case 3 who showed persistent dementia had multiple lesions in addition to the left antero-medial thalamic infarction. A review of the previous reports and investigations of the present cases suggest that a single ischemic lesion in the left antero-medial thalamus will cause amnesia and/or aphasic symptom while in cases with other multiple lesions it may cause persistent dementia.