Evaluation of language functions in acute cerebellar vascular diseases.

BACKGROUND: The principal features of the cerebellar infarcts are ataxia, failure of coordination, gait instability, and articulation and eye movement disabilities. Language disabilities are also seen with cerebellar lesions, but there are difficulties in diagnosis. This study was planned to evaluate the effects of cerebellar lesions on language functions and the relation between these functions and lesion type, age, and education level.
METHODS: A total of 20 patients, 13 male (65%) and 7 female (35%), were included in this study. Twenty control subjects with similar demographic characteristics were also included. The mean age of the patient group was not statistically different.
RESULTS: Patients with vermal lesions had significantly higher performance than patients with paravermal lesions when evaluating the understanding of hearing and total aphasia score. Understanding of reading function was significantly better in the patients with small lesions compared with those with large lesions. When the aphasia parameters were compared between the patient and control groups, significant differences were found for all parameters, which reflected the language abilities understanding, naming, true-wrong questions, complex questions, comparing, repeating, and total aphasia score. Reading and writing functions were also significantly different between the patients and the control subjects.
CONCLUSION: We found that the cerebellum contributes in several language parameters. These functions show difference according to localization and lesion volume of cerebellar disease. Aphasia should be explored as an important parameter when evaluating the loss of function in patients with cerebellar lesions.