Erschienen in:
27.09.2019 | Original Communication
“Thalamic aphasia” after stroke is associated with left anterior lesion location
verfasst von:
Merve Fritsch, Thomas Krause, Fabian Klostermann, Kersten Villringer, Manuela Ihrke, Christian H. Nolte
Erschienen in:
Journal of Neurology
|
Ausgabe 1/2020
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Abstract
Background
Aphasic symptoms are typically associated with lesions of the left fronto-temporal cortex. Interestingly, aphasic symptoms have also been described in patients with thalamic strokes in anterior, paramedian or posterolateral location. So far, systematic analyses are missing.
Methods
We conducted a retrospective analysis of consecutive patients admitted to our tertiary stroke care center between January 2016 and July 2017 with image-based (MRI) proven ischemic stroke. We evaluated stroke lesion location, using 3-T MRI, and presence of aphasic symptoms.
Results
Out of 1064 patients, 104 (9.8%) presented with a thalamic stroke, 52 of which (4.9%) had an isolated lesion in the thalamus (ILT). In patients with ILT, 6/52 had aphasic symptoms. Aphasic symptoms after ILT were only present in patients with left anterior lesion location (n = 6, 100% left anterior vs. 0% other thalamic location, p < 0.001).
Conclusions
Aphasic symptoms in thalamic stroke are strongly associated with left anterior lesion location. In thalamo-cortical language networks, specifically the nuclei in the left anterior thalamus could play an important role in integration of left cortical information with disconnection leading to aphasic symptoms.