A case of isolated partial auditory agnosia associated with coiling of the left internal carotid artery

A 64-year-old bilingual lawyer complained of an abrupt loss of comprehension of spoken words and much less severe loss of recognition of various sounds. An isolated partial auditory agnosia, due to a left-sided, temporal dysfunction was confirmed by the clinical neuropsychological and logopedic examination. Only a minimal left cortical, peri-insular hypodensity was suspected on CT-scan of the brain, while the NMR-scan was inconclusive. Arteriography showed a large coiling internal carotid artery on the left side, as a possible source of thrombo-embolism.