Summary:
Background. Certain level of aphasia is considered to be an integral component of dementia. More controversial is
the question whether every -e .g. also strictly focal - aphasia must be accompanied with dementia.
Methods and Results. 41 persons hospitalized after the cerebral stroke (17 men, 24 women, average age 64.6, 47
to 89 years old) were tested to correlate the level of aphasia with mental and intelligence scores. 35 patients had an
ischaemic stroke, 6 had a hemorrhagic one; according to CT/MRI there were 37 patients with left sided impairment,
one patient with a right sided one and 3 patients with bilateral lesions. As an aphasiologic test the Western Aphasia
Battery (WAB) was used, to determine the general mental performance as an equivalent of IQ test the non-verbal
Raven‘s and verbal Euro-ADAS test were used. Correlation analysis using non-parametric Spearman’s coefficient
showed a significant relation between results in phatic functions and the score in intelligence tests. Phatic performance
had in all elementary tests closer relation to verbal IQ in Euro-ADAS than with non-verbal IQ in Raven‘s test. The
highest correlation was found in the relation between „apprehension vs. Euro-ADAS“ (-0,842) and „apprehension
vs. Raven“ (0,782), while the lowest correlation was found for „repetition vs. Euro-ADAS“ (-0,769), and „repetition
vs. Raven“ (0,646). The correlation was in all cases significant (p<0.00001). Similar narrowrelation occurred between
the clinical forms of aphasia and intelligence tests. Sensory aphasia was associated mest closely with both relations,
with Euro-ADAS (-0,800), and Raven‘s test (0,800), while global aphasia had the lowest correlationwith Euro-ADAS
(-0,451) and with Raven‘s test (0,517).
Key words:
Speech is not only a product of thinking but also represents a source and structural tool for thinking.
Key words: aphasia, neuropsychological tests, Raven, Euro-ADAS, intelligence vs. speech.
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