Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

The 45th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Neurology

Symptomatology of aphasia

Hirotaka Tanabe, M.D.

Department of Neuropsychiatry, Ehime University School of Medicine

Recently, some standard test batteries such as Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination and Western Aphasia Battery are frequently used to assess language abnormalities and to identify individual types of aphasia. Aphasia is, however, a neurologic disorder and differential diagnosis of the type should be made naturally in the neurological examination. Characteristics of verbal output are most important clinically for the classification. The table shows core symptoms of classical aphasic types. The figure presents a systematic approach to aphasia diagnosis based on several different patterns of aphasic output.

(CLINICA NEUROL, 44: 837|838, 2004)
key words: aphasia, symptomatology, speech output, aphasic type, diagnosis

(Received: 13-May-04)