Aphasia after stroke in native chinese speakers

Abstract

Eighty-one Chinese patients who became aphasic following a stroke are reported. Perisylvian aphasia syndromes were present in 18 (22·22%), borderzone aphasic syndromes in 19 (23·46%), global aphasia in 16 (19·76%), subcortical aphasia in 27 (33·3%) and anomic aphasia in only one (1·23%). Sixty-eight of 70 (97.1%) right-handed patients with aphasia had lesions located in the left hemisphere as defined by computed tomography. Nine of the 11 non-right-handed patients also had lesions located in the left hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere laterality of the majority of Chinese patients—whether right- or left-handed—was the left, and the classic aphasia patterns of Indo-European language speakers were readily demonstrated in Chinese-speaking subjects.