Summary
Background
In this study we investigated the neurolinguistic and neuroimaging characteristics of post-stroke motor aphasia patients. The effects of acupuncture on cortex activation by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with motor aphasia were also studied.
Methods
In this study 43 patients with motor aphasia after stroke were assessed according to Clinical Rehabilitation Research Center aphasia examination (CRRCAE) for linguistic evaluation and MRI and computed tomography (CT) were used for the analyses of brain lesions. The MRI imaging data were also examined using statistical parametric mapping (SPM8) software. Cortex activation images during acupuncture were analyzed using generalized linear model analysis.
Results
The results of MRI and CT showed diverse brain lesion regions of post-stroke motor aphasia including the cortex, subcortex and cortex together with the subcortex. The language-related brain areas are activated by acupuncture including frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes as well as insula, precuneus and other wide range of brain function areas as shown by MRI.
Conclusions
Our study showed that the brain lesion regions in post-stroke motor aphasia were not completely consistent with the classical motor speech center. By using MRI our study results suggest that the formation of cognitive language may be involved with the cortical-subcortical functional networks. Acupuncture may be useful for treatment of motor aphasia after stroke.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by grants from the Doctoral Fund of the Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 20090013110003) and the New Century Excellent Talents in University of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. NCET-11-0603) and Capital Featured Clinical Research of Beijing Municipal Science and Technology, China (No. Z131107002213094). We are also grateful for the support of the radiology department, Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.
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J. Chang, H. Zhang, Z. Tan, J. Xiao, S. Li, and Y. Gao declare that they have no competing interests.
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Chang, J., Zhang, H., Tan, Z. et al. Effect of electroacupuncture in patients with post-stroke motor aphasia. Wien Klin Wochenschr 129, 102–109 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00508-016-1070-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00508-016-1070-1