[Subcortical aphasia. Neruolinguistic and x-ray computed tomography studies of 25 cases]

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.