Features of speech disorders in patients with acute ischemic stroke

Introduction. Various speech disorders that lead to impaired communication occur in 3050% of ischemic stroke (IS) survivors. Although most attention is traditionally paid to aphasia, speech disorders also include the following: dysarthria, dysphonia (isolated or in combination with dysarthria and/or dysphagia), fluency disorders, and non-specific speech disorders associated with the severity of condition and a cognitive disorder. Objective: to study the variety of speech disorders and their features in patients with acute IS. Materials and methods. We examined 69 right-handed patients with mild-to-moderate acute IS and NIHSS score of 412. The patients were enrolled in the study on days 17 of the IS. Results. We found aphasia in 27/69 patients (39.1%), dysarthria in 21/69 patients (30.4%), dysphonia (isolated or in combination with dysarthria) in 17/69 patients (24.6%), fluency disorders in 19/69 patients (27.5%; 2 patients with tachylalia and 17 patients with bradylalia). In addition, 30 patients (43.5%) had dysphagia (isolated or in combination with dysarthria). At the initial examination, patients admitted within the 17 days of the acute IS onset presented with global or severe sensory and motor aphasia. At the same time, we discovered a pronounced positive dynamics in speech recovery thanks to speech therapy sessions. A significant remission in a speech disorder component led to the development of cortical aphasia affecting either anterior or posterior language areas at the end of the most acute IS period, while aphasia severity reduced to mild or moderate. Conclusions. A fast reduction in aphasic disorders due to the speech therapy sessions suggests that the focal and connectional diaschisis are the basis for the severe speech disorders.