Cortical Anarthria in An Arabic Speaking Unilingual: A Case Report

ABSTRACT

A 59-year-old, Arabic, right handed female with history of hypertension and ischemic heart disease presented with sudden onset anarthria associated with right arm weakness. Language examination showed Anarthira with inability to produce more than rare unintelligible single syllables. Comprehension was intact. She correctly wrote but could not verbalize object names nor read aloud. She wrote easily but made spelling mistakes with long sentences. Motor exam only revealed slight hyper-reflexia and weakness of right upper extremity. Imaging showed a lesion in the left corona radiata and bilateral subcortical white matter hyper intensities. She was diagnosed with acute ischemic stroke and received routine antithrombotic treatment. Within two days, she started producing single words, with slow, effortful and abnormal long vowels. This report describes the clinical and radiological aspects of a case of cortical anarthria in an Arabic-speaking subject.