Article

We report here the case of a 52-year-old Korean woman who was
initially diagnosed with non-fluent/global crossed aphasia. METHODS AND RESULTS:
Initial computed tomography of the brain revealed a haematoma of approximately 40
ml in the right basal ganglia area and cavitation around the right lateral
ventricle. Three years after onset the aphasia was resolved to a conduction
aphasia and she had an ongoing left-sided gait disturbance. Follow-up anatomical
magnetic resonance imaging found no recurrence of haemorrhage. Language
functional magnetic resonance imaging was examined before and after repetitive
transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment. A 90-mm round coil stimulator was
used and the repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment location was
P3 on the 10-20 International electrode placement system (1 Hz, 20 min per day
for 10 days over a 2-week period). Functional magnetic resonance imaging results
before repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment showed no
significant activity in either the ipsilesional or contralesional hemispheres for
noun generation and sentence completion paradigms (p < 0.001, cluster size 128).
Compared with the pre-treatment phase, following repetitive transcranial magnetic
stimulation treatment the data from functional magnetic resonance imaging
revealed significant activations in the right inferior frontal lobe (Broca's
area), posterior temporal gyrus (Wernicke's area), and parietal lobe for both the
noun generation and sentence completion tasks (p < 0.001, cluster size 128).
CONCLUSION: This functional magnetic resonance imaging case study is the first to
suggest the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for improving
language outcome in a patient with crossed aphasia. In addition, we report the
value of language functional magnetic resonance imaging before and after
repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment for determining the effect
of treatment and the underlying neurobiological mechanism of functional recovery
following repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment.

Langue : ANGLAIS