ABSTRACT
Objective To study the clinical characteristics and potential influencing factors of rehabilitation of cognition in post-stroke patients with aphasia.methods Forty-one patients with aphasia after ischemic stroke,admitted to Nanfang hospital and Nanfang Yanling Hospital from June 2015 to November 2016 were included.Their primary clinical information and NIHSS scores were registered.In acute phase,Aphasia Battery of Chinese and Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination was used to evaluate language ability and classify the aphasia type.Non-language-based Cognitive assessment (NLCA) was used to assess patients' nonlinguistic cognition.Besides,the assessment of post-stroke depression and dependence degree of daily living activities were performed.3 months later,patients were evaluated again.A total of 30 aphasia patients completed the final follow-up.Result s(1) Compared with the baseline in patients with aphasia after stoke,all domains of language ability were significantly improved after 3 months(P<0.05).(2)Every nonlinguistic cognitive score was significantly increased within 3 months(total NLCA score(65.83±13.02 vs 48.00±25.11),memory(17.23±2.49 vs 13.30±5.42),visual spatial ability(10.67±2.43 vs 8.07±3.75),logical reasoning ability(6.53±1.48 vs 4.97±2.43),attention(25.57±5.79 vs 17.43±12.33),executive function(5.77±3.47 vs 4.20±4.23),all P<0.01).(3)The NLCA total score (62.40±14.23 vs 72.70±6.34)and scores in visual spatial (9.95±2.67 vs 12.10±0.74)and abstract reasoning(6.05±1.54 vs 7.50±0.71) of persisting aphasia patients were significantly lower than that of aphasia recovered group(all P<0.05).(4) Multivariate regression showed that initial NLCA score had a negative predictive effect on cognitive function improvement of aphasia patients 3 months after stroke(β=-0.603,P<0.01).Conclusion The rehabilitation of cognitive function in patients with aphasia after stroke is similar to that of language function.Patients with persisting aphasia may have worse performance on nonlinguistic cognition and ability of daily living,even with more serious depressive emotion.Evaluation of nonlinguistic cognition in post-stroke aphasia patients in acute phase is necessary and the score seems to be an important predicting factor of 3-month cognition.