Improvement of communication disabilities in aphasia patients

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In order to clarify communication disabilities in aphasia patients, we observed how inpatients with moderate to severe aphasia communicate. The results showed that patients who could repeat words and phrases often used "asking"for communication purposes, while those who could not repeat often used "nodding'. Next, to shorten the amount time required to perform the Standard Language Test of Aphasia (SLTA) in the acute phase and to abridged bedside test to be used on patients with severe aphasia, we attempted to extract most important test items. Subjects were 111 right-handed patients (77men, 34women) diagnosed with aphasia. The age (mean± SD) of these patients was 60.1±1.08 years. Cause of aphasia was cerebrovascular disease in 92patients, brain tumor in 15, and traumatic head injury in 4. Severity of aphasia was severe in 29patients, moderate in 47, and mild in 35. The first principal comportment consisted of "Listening" and "reading" test items : the second principal component consisted of "writing" test items : and the third principal component consisted of "speaking" test items. The 25 items in the SLTA were subjected to multivariate analysis (analysis of principal components), and the 13 most important test items were identified. These 13 items contain the four essential conditions (i. e. , listening, speaking, writing and reading) for language function tests, and represent about half of the entire SLTA test items. This abridged SLTA can be conducted in a relatively short period of time and is useful for bedside screening for aphasia.