The purpose of this study is to delineate the pattern of reorganization of cortical language areas using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) after rehabilitation therapy in patients with aphasia. Six right-handed aphasic patients were investigated. Causes of aphasia were intracerebral hemorrhages of the left basal ganglia in 3 patients, cerebral infarction of the left MCA in 2, and surgical resection of the frontotemporal lobes to control intractable epilepsy in 1. An auditory sentence completion task was used to activate brain language areas during the fMRI. Three patients with left frontal lesions showed activation in the right inferior frontal lobes while performing language tasks, whereas the other 3, whose lesions located at subcortical areas, showed activation in the bilateral frontal and temporal lobes. Our results demonstrated the differences in interhemispheric reorganization of the language network depending on the location of the lesion in aphasic patients. While the patients with subcortical lesion showed tendency of bilateral frontal activation, those with cortical lesion showed activation of the right frontal lobe.
Adult ; Aphasia/*pathology/physiopathology ; Cerebral Cortex/*pathology ; Female ; Human ; *Language ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Age

The intravenous administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine (GD) is relatively safe and rarely causes systemic toxicity in the course of routine imaging studies. However, the general safety of intrathecal GD has not been established. We report a very rare case of an overdose intrathecal GD injection presenting with neurotoxic manifestations, including a decreased level of consciousness, global aphasia, rigidity, and visual disturbance.
Adult ; Aphasia/etiology/pathology/physiopathology ; Brain/drug effects/pathology ; *Contrast Media/administration & dosage/toxicity ; *Gadolinium DTPA/administration & dosage/toxicity ; Humans ; *Injections, Spinal ; Male ; Muscle Rigidity/etiology/pathology/physiopathology ; *Neurotoxicity Syndromes/etiology/pathology/physiopathology ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Vision Disorders/etiology/pathology