engleski

Correlation between stroke severity and scores on the speech language testing

Many studies concerning influence of stroke severity on speech - language difficulties yield contradictory findings because of the large number of influencing factors. The aim of this study is to determine if initial stroke severity can predict severity of speech – language deficit and prognosis of recovery. The study applied the Psycholinguistic Assessment of Language Processing in Aphasia (J. Kay, R. Lesser & M. Coltheart, 1997), using only eight parts of the test. Stroke severity was measured by Glasgow coma core (1-15). We examined location and size of lesion according CT scan analyzes. The test was applied to 60 examinees, which had been divided in three groups (20 examinees in each group): a group with right hemisphere damage (RHD), a group with left hemisphere damage (LHD) and a group with left hemisphere damage patients in therapy (LHDT). We have determined average results of each group on overall test and on each task as well as correlation between results on overall test and each task and stroke severity. Our results show that outcome for language function can be predicted by initial stroke severity in some cases. Stroke severity and site of lesion, which are powerful prognostic factors in groups of patients, can not be considered unfailing predictors of improvement and outcome in single patient. The localization of the lesion is more important in prognosis than lesion size. Some speech language functions can be more or less impaired independently of stroke severity.

aphasia ; stroke severity ; speech-language difficulties

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