Dysarthria in acute ischemic stroke: Localization and prognosis

Background and purpose: dysarthria is a speech disorder characterized by dysfunction in the initiation,control,and coordination of the articulatory structures involved in speech output. there is little information about anatomic specificity,spectrum of associated clinical characteristics,etiologic mechanisms,and its prognosis of dysarthria. we aim to search correlation between the lesion localization and the prognosis. methods: patients with sudden onset of dysarthria due to a single cerebral infarction confirmed by ct and/or mri. were included. articulation was evaluated and graded at the acute period,at the first and third month after the event took place. results: fifty five consecutive patients were included. the majority of the lesions were located in corona radiata (36.5%),followed by pontine lesions (25.5 %). the spontaneous recovery was significant both at first and third months examinations and lesions located in corona radiata and infratentorial lesions on the right side seemed to have better prognosis. conclusions: the studies including high number of patients with different lesion localization with functional imagings would contribute our understanding about dysarhtria and prognosis.