Picture of where Broca's aphasia and Wernicke's aphasia are

Aphasia Diagnosis

APHASIA is an acquired communication disorder that results from damage to the parts of the brain that involve language.  Damage to the left side of the brain causes aphasia for most right-handers and about half of left-handers. Aphasia usually occurs suddenly, often as the result of a stroke or head injury, but it may also develop slowly, as in the case of a brain tumor, an infection, or dementia. The disorder may impair the expression and understanding of language as well as reading and writing. Individuals who experience damage to the right side of the brain may have additional difficulties beyond speech and language.  Depending on the area and extent of brain damage, someone suffering from aphasia may be able to speak but not write, or vice versa, or display any of a wide variety of other deficiencies in language comprehension and production, such as being able to sing but not speak. Individuals with aphasia may also have other problems, such as dysarthria, apraxia or dysphagia (swallowing problems).The prognosis of those with aphasia varies widely, and is dependent upon age of the patient, site and size of lesion, and type of aphasia.

Causes of Aphasia

According to the National Aphasia Association, approximately 80,000 individuals acquire aphasia each year from strokes. About one million people in the United States currently have aphasia.  Aphasia is caused by damage to one or more of the language areas of the brain. The most common cause of aphasia is brain damage resulting from a stroke — the blockage or rupture of a blood vessel in the brain. This disruption of the blood supply leads to brain cell death or damage in areas of the brain controlling language. Brain damage caused by a severe head injury, brain tumors, brain infections or a degenerative process can also cause aphasia.

Types of Aphasia

No classification of patients in subtypes and groups of subtypes is adequate. Only about 60% of patients will fit in a classification scheme such as fluent/nonfluent/pure aphasias. There is a huge variation among patients with the same diagnosis, and aphasias can be highly selective. For instance, patients with naming deficits (anomic aphasia) might show an inability only for naming buildings, or people, or colors (Kolb, B. et.al., 2003).

The different types of aphasia can be divided into three categories: fluent, non-fluent and “pure” aphasias.^[2]

• Fluent aphasias- also called receptive aphasias, are impairments related mostly to the input or reception of language, with difficulties either in auditory verbal comprehension or in the repetition of words, phrases, or sentences spoken by others. Speech is easy and fluent, but there are difficulties related to the output of language as well, such as paraphasia. Examples of fluent aphasias are: Wernicke’s aphasia, Transcoritical sensory aphasia, conduction aphasia, anoic aphasia.

• Nonfluent aphasias- Nonfluent aphasias are also called expressive aphasias and patients  have difficulties in producing language and creating words, but in most cases there is relatively good auditory verbal comprehension. Examples of nonfluent aphasias are: Broca’s aphasia, Transcortical motor  aphasia, global aphasia

• “Pure” aphasias are selective impairments in reading, writing, or the recognition of words. These disorders may be quite selective. For example, a person is able to read but not write, or is able to write but not read. Examples of pure aphasias are: Pure alexia, Agraphia, Pure word deafness

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  Tags: anomic aphasia, aphasia, broca's aphasia, conduction aphasia, global aphasia, mixed transcortical aphasia, transcortical motor aphasia, transcortical sensory aphasia, wernicke's aphasia