Aphasic Syndromes in Cerebral Venous and Dural Sinuses Thrombosis—A Review of the Literature

Abstract

Aphasia is an acquired central disorder of language that affects a person’s ability to understand and/or produce spoken and written language, caused by lesions situated usually in the dominant (left) cerebral hemisphere. On one hand aphasia has a prevalence of 25–30% in acute ischemic stroke, especially in arterial infarcts. On the other hand, cerebral venous and dural sinuses thrombosis (CVT) remains a less common and underdiagnosed cause of ischemic stroke (0.5–1% of all strokes). Aphasia has been observed in almost 20% of patients who suffered CVT. The presence of aphasia is considered a negative predictive factor in patients with stroke, severe language disorders corresponding to arduous recovery. Taking into consideration data from the literature, aphasia is also considered a predictive factor for patients with CVT; its absences, together with the absence of worsening after admission, are determinants of complete recovery after CVT. This review has as the principal role of gathering current information from the literature (PubMed database 2012–2022) regarding the clinical features of aphasic syndromes and its incidence in patients with CVT. The main conclusion of this review was that aphasic syndromes are not usually the consequence of isolated thrombosis of dural sinuses or cerebral veins thrombosis. The most frequent form of CVT that determines aphasia is represented by the left transverse sinus thrombosis associated with a posterior left temporal lesion (due to left temporal cortical veins thrombosis), followed by the superior sagittal sinus thrombosis associated with a left frontal lesion (due to left frontal cortical veins thrombosis). Only a few cases are presenting isolated cortical veins thrombosis and left thalamus lesions due to deep cerebral vein thrombosis. We also concluded that the most important demographic factor was the gender of the patients, women being more affected than men, due to their postpartum condition.

Keywords

• aphasia
• cerebral venous thrombosis
• intracranial dural sinus thrombosis
• CVT