Aphasia Flashcards
Signs/symptoms of a stroke
Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm or leg (especially on one side of the body)
Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding speech
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance, lack of coordination
What is TPA?
Medicine given to patients through an IV in the arm
Works by dissolving blood clots that block blood flow to the brain
How soon do you need to go to the hospital in order to receive TPA?
Has to be administered quickly
Under 3 hours after the stroke
The sooner the administration, the better the outcome for the patient
Ischemic stroke
Occurs when a blood clot blocks or narrows an artery leading to the brain
A blood clot often forms in arteries damaged by the buildup of plaques (atherosclerosis)
Hemorrhagic stroke
Due to bleeding into the brain by the rupture of a blood vessel
Is associated with severe morbidity and high mortality
What type of stroke cannot receive TPA?
Hemorrhagic stroke
What is a “mini” stroke?
Temporary disruption in the blood supply to part of the brain
Results in a lack of oxygen to the brain
Fluent/Receptive/Wernicke’s aphasia
Can speak fluently and use long sentences, but what they are saying makes no sense
Most don’t realize what they are saying doesn’t make sense and often get’s frustrated when people don’t understand them
Non-fluent/Expressive/Broca’s aphasia
Output of spontaneous speech is diminished and there is a loss of normal grammatical structure
Small linking words, conjunctions (and, or, but), and use of prepositions are lost
Global aphasia
Profound impairment of all modalities of receptive and expressive language
Typically present with marked impairments of comprehension of single words, sentences, and conversations, as well as severely limited spoken output
Phonemic paraphasia
Mispronunciation, syllables out of sequence
Ex: “I slipped in the lice (ice) and broke my arm”
Semantic paraphasia
An entire word is substituted for the intended word (similar meaning word)
Ex: “son” instead of “daughter”, “apple” instead of “orange”
Agnosia
Inability to recognize objects
Anomia
Loss of the ability to name objects or retrieve names of people
Agraphia
Loss of ability to express thoughts in writing
