Neuropsychological evaluation of a case of Wernicke's aphasia
Keywords:
glioblastoma multiforme, neuropsychological evaluation, Wernicke's aphasiaAbstract
Introduction: This case illustrates a glioblastoma multiforme that generated aphasia. Although aphasia is usually a sequel of a cerebral vascular event, it has been reported to be present after a tumor lesion; which makes the present case valuable and exemplifies the importance of neuropsychology in oncologic disease.
Objective: To present a clinical case that illustrates how a tumor lesion can cause cognitive symptomatology.
Case presentation: After identifying an intra-axial tumor lesion in the left temporoinsular region by structural MRI, the patient underwent tumor biopsy and resection. A pre-surgical neuropsychological evaluation was requested. From the application of the Barcelona Brief Test, a fluent language with agrammatisms, phonological and literal paraphasias in spontaneous language, repetition and naming, phonological paragraphies, diminished informative content and difficulties in sentence comprehension were identified; suggesting Wernicke's aphasia. An anatomical correlation has been described between a lesion in the posterior superior temporal gyrus and Wernicke's aphasia, as observed in the case. Specifically, the patient presented with Wernicke's aphasia type I and II due to the anatomofunctional correlate and the presence of fluent speech, agrammatisms and paraphasias.
Conclusions: The patient's relatively small oncologic lesion generated a florid and sudden cognitive symptomatology. A neuropsychological evaluation identified the presence of Wernicke's aphasia.
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