Neurol. praxi. 2023;24(1):73-78 | DOI: 10.36290/neu.2022.071

How to assess aphasia in clinical practice

doc. MUDr. Robert Rusina, Ph.D.¹, prof. PaedDr. Zsolt Cséfalvay, Ph.D.^{1, 2}

¹ Neurologická klinika 3. lékařská fakulta Univerzity Karlovy a Fakultní Thomayerova nemocnice, Praha

² Katedra logopedie, Komenského univerzita, Bratislava

Despite the large variability of language symptoms, it is possible to cluster most patients with stroke induced aphasia into basic clinical syndromes of aphasia. The core dichotomy of aphasias is based on the localization of brain lesions (in anterior lesions, non-fluent aphasia occurs, while fluent aphasias develop in posterior lesions of the cerebral cortex). The degree of aphasia mostly corresponds to the extent of the lesion. Since anomia occurs in every type of aphasia, the clinical assessment consequently focuses on three language processes: speech comprehension, spontaneous speech, and repetition. We propose a simple roadmap for bedside examination, based on five steps. This algorithm allows clinicians to identify clinical syndromes of aphasias: Broca's, Wernicke's, global, conduction, transcortical motor, or transcortical sensory, and anomic aphasia.

Keywords: language, clinical assessment, aphasia subtypes.

Received: September 8, 2022; Revised: November 4, 2022; Accepted: November 10, 2022; Prepublished online: November 10, 2022; Published: March 3, 2023  Show citation