Subcortical Aphasia in Stroke Patients

OBJECTIVE: The purposes of this study were to identify the incidence of subcortical aphasia and to investigate the different linguistic characteristics and prognosis. METHOD: Twenty-nine stroke patients(18 men and 11 women) with aphasia were investigated in the study. On the basis of the findings of brain CT and MRI images, the patients were divided into either cortical aphasia group or subcortical aphasia group. Fifteen cortical aphasia patients and 14 subcortical aphasia patients underwent an aphasia screening test. Fluency, comprehension, speech, naming, repetition, reading, and writing abilities were evaluated as the modalities of language. All patients received the speech therapy and were reevaluated at three months after the initial evaluation. RESULTS: The incidence of subcortical aphasia was 48.3% of all aphasia patients from the stroke. Subcortical aphasia patients showed more variable types of aphasia and less linguistic damage than the cortical aphasia patients. The prognosis of subcortical aphasia patients was better than the cortical aphasia patients. Especially the cases of global aphasia from the subcortical lesions showed a rapid recovery and good prognosis. CONCLUSION: Early recognition of the subcortical aphasia and a comprehensive speech therapy would be beneficial for the improvement of linguistic function in the subcortical aphasia patients.

Effect of Torque Heel on Excessive External Rotation of Hemiplegic Foot: Three Dimensional Gait Analysis

OBJECTIVE: Excessive external rotation of the hemiplegic foot is a common problem of hemiplegic gait. There has been a few report on etiological investigation and corrective measurement of an excessive external rotation of hemiplegic foot. Thus we present a newly designed Torque heel to correct the external rotation of hemiplegic foot. METHOD: Ten hemiparetic patients with an excessive external rotation of affected foot participated in this study. All of the participants were able to walk at least 10 meters with metal a ankle foot orthosis (AFO) using a single cane. Each of these patients was placed on four tries of walk: (1) on a bare foot; (2) with an AFO; (3) with an AFO and a quarter inch of lateral wedge; and (4) with an AFO and the Torque heel . Gait patterns were analysed by the Vicon 370, three dimensional motion analyser. RESULTS: The speed and stride length increased in all tries except for the bare foot walk. Those who walked with the assistive devices showed no difference in the speed and stride length. All the participants showed an increased in external rotation of pelvis and ankle. Those who walked with an AFO and Torque heel presented a decrease in the external rotation of foot and pelvis. The hip and ankle motions of the hemiplegic limbs were not affected with the AFO and Torque heel . A significant degree of correction in pelvic rotation with an AFO and Torque heel was noted. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that an AFO with Torque heel is beneficial to the correction of external rotation of a hemiplegic foot. And the excessive external rotation of hemiplegic foot may be due possibly to the external rotation of pelvis.

Seasonal Variation in the Occurrence of Stroke

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate whether the stroke occurrence is influenced by the seasonal and diurnal changes and also to know if the seasonal factor affects the functional outcome of stroke patients. METHOD: We analyzed the epidemiologic, etiologic, and clinical data collected from the chart reviews in 824 stroke patients who were admitted to the Asan Medical Center from April 1995 to May 1997. RESULTS: The highest incidence of the stroke was noted in the group of 60 years of age with the ratio of male to female, 1.27 : 1. The occurrence rate of ischemic stroke (60.4%) was higher than that of hemorrhagic stroke (34.9%) or other type stroke (4.7%). The highest occurrence of stroke was noted during the months of January and November. The seasonal preference was winter and autumn followed by summer and spring. The onset of stroke was relatively high between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm with regard to the diurnal variance. The functional improvement was not significantly affected by the seasonal change. CONCLUSION: The stroke occurred more in winter and autumn than in other seasons. And the functional recuperation was not influenced by the seasonal variation. A further multicenter prospective study using stroke registry would bring more precise and valuable informations.

Lumbar Lordosis in Low Back Pain Patients

The purposes of this study were to identify lumbar lordosis in low back pain patients and to investigate differences in lumbar lordosis in low back pain patients according to etiologies. On the basis of the findings of spinal roentgenogram, MRI, and SPECT imagies, the patients were divided into four groups; 1) facet syndrome with facet joint inflammation or degenerative change, 2) disc herniation including disc bulging or extrusion, 3) combined low back pain accompaning facet joint lesion with disc herniation, 4) simple low back pain with no abnormal imaging findings. There were statistically significant decrease in low back pain patients compared with normal controls in terms of lumbosacral curvature. No sex and age differences were observed within low back pain patients and normal controls in terms of lumbosacral curvature. The review disclosed a significant decrease of the lumbosacral angle in order of simple low back pain, disc herniation, combined low back pain compared with normal controls. But facet syndrome patients showed no change of lumbosacral angle. Patients with disc bulging showed no significant decrease of lumbosacral angle compared with normal controls but patients with disc extrusion showed significant decrease. It is believed that the decrease of lumbosacral angle in low back patients results from a pathokinesiological effort to keep facet joint from pressure stemed from facet overlying and to minimize the shearing force over lumbosacral joint. The facet joint stiffness due to inflammation may play a major role in no change of lumbosacral angle in facet syndrome patients. In conclusion, different causes of low back pain should be taken into consideration for the assessment of lumbosacral angle.