Delayed Recall Deficits in Aphasic Stroke Patients

Evidence of Alzheimer's Dementia?

¹ University of Arizona, Tucson

In a comparative study of the performance of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), aphasia resulting from stroke, and normal elders on a variety of neuropsychological tasks, 3 aphasic patients performed similarly to AD patients in the delayed recall of verbal material. The memory deficit of these aphasic patients raised the question of incipient dementia because memory impairment is the hallmark characteristic of AD. However, when the performance profiles of the aphasic patients on all four memory measures administered in the study were compared to those of AD patients, differences made the presence of dementia unlikely. Nonetheless, the possibility remained that a deficit in delayed free recall might be the primordial symptom of dementia. Therefore, the four memory tasks were readministered to the 3 aphasic patients 2 years later, and intergroup performance comparisons again were made. The performance profiles of the aphasic patients obtained 2 years later were superior to and distinct from the AD patients, confirming the absence of dementia at Test Time 1.

Key Words: aphasia • dementia • Alzheimer's • memory • language

Submitted on September 26, 1988
Accepted on August 28, 1989