[Anatomical and clinical considerations in aphasia: the value of tomodensitometry (author's transl)]

Tomometric tests were carried out in 54 patients with a clinical picture of stabilized or regressive aphasia, some time after the initial episode. The correlation between clinical and topographic findings were satisfactory in 90 p. 100 of the cases. The frequency of lesions extending into several lobes (70 cases) and of multiple lesions is stressed. There is a significant relationship between the severity of the clinical findings during tomometric testing and the volume or multiplicity of the lesions. The progression of the disease after 6 months, as studied in 31 patients, was also related to the volume of the lesion, but was not influenced by the presence of diffuse atrophy, except where the disease was deteriorating. The value of tomometry in the study of aphasia involves 3 factors: precise clinical and lesional correlation, and the effect of the volume of the lesion on its initial severity and progression. In the future, tomometry should enable a correlative symptomatic study of aphasic disorders to be made.