Bromocriptine treatment of nonfluent aphasia.

Using a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, we studied the effect of bromocriptine (15 mg daily) in 20 men with chronic nonfluent aphasia. The study was conducted over a 28-week period in two phases. In phase I, the patients received either bromocriptine or placebo; in phase II the treatments were crossed over.

Pharmacological approaches to the treatment of aphasia.

The catecholaminergic agonists, d-amphetamine and bromocriptine, have shown some promise in the treatment of aphasia. Although studies indicate that patients with aphasia experience language improvement after taking these agents, the experimental controls necessary to prove their efficacy are lacking. Rigorously controlled investigations using a significant number of aphasic patients and a double-blind-placebo controlled design, as well as studies using these drugs as acute care performance enhancers are needed.

Speech fluency in aphasia. Regional cerebral blood flow correlates of recovery using single-photon emission computed tomography.

This study investigated the relationship between diminished regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and the recovery of fluent speech in aphasia. Single-photon emission computed tomographic brain scans using [123I]N-isopropyl-p-iodoamphetamine were obtained from 14 nonfluent aphasic patients within 30 days of cerebral infarction. Measurements of speech fluency were acquired initially and at 3 months after infarction.

Bromocriptine treatment of nonfluent aphasia.

Two patients with nonfluent aphasia, secondary to stroke, of more than 18 months' duration, were started on bromocriptine to determine its effect on speech fluency. The first patient showed some improvement in fluency at 10 mg and marked improvement at 30 mg; he increased from a mean length of 3.19 words to 4.

Utility of late N-isopropyl-p-(iodine-123)-iodoamphetamine brain distribution in predicting outcome following cerebral infarction.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine utility of late N-isopropyl-p-(iodine-123)-iodoamphetamine distribution in predicting neurological and language outcome.

Methods: We prospectively studied 29 patients with unilateral hemispheric ischemic cerebral infarction using the neuroimaging method of single-photon emission computed tomography and the above tracer. Four different imaging measures reflecting late tracer distribution or redistribution and three measures indicative of the patients' overall neurological or language outcome at 3 months were used in the data analysis.