[The localizing value of speech disorders in transitory cerebral ischemia]

Clinical and angiographic findings in 30 patients who had suffered from a dysphasic disorder in the course of transient cerebral ischaemia were reviewed and compared with the findings in patients with permanent aphasia or dysarthria. The results of angiography differed significantly from those of the aphasic patients and were similar to those of the patients with dysarthria: in nearly 60% of the patients with transient dysphasia angiography showed no abnormality, whilst only 23% of the patients had lesions in the left carotid or middle cerebral artery. In the cases where the other neurological findings made it possible to localize the site of the lesion, ischaemia of the dominant hemisphere prevailed, but this correlation was far from being an absolute one. The patient's description of his own dysphasic disorder is not sufficient to decide whether the dysphasia is due to aphasic syndrome of middle cerebral artery origin, to anomia or to dysarthria. Thus, transient dysphasia appears to be a symptom of little localizing value.