Cognitive and speech disorders in patients with hemiparetic form of childhood cerebral palsy

Abstract

Aim. To assess cognitive and speech functions in patients with cerebral palsy and their relationship with the location of the pathological focus and gender.Material and methods. We examined 125 children aged 7-9 years with a final diagnosis of cerebral palsy, hemiplegic form (G80.2). The patients were divided into 2 groups depending on the location of the hemispheric focus. Group I consisted of 72 patients with left-sided hemiparesis (LHP), 33 girls and 39 boys. Group II consisted of 53 patients with right-sided hemiparesis (RHP), 23 girls and 30 boys. The control group included 30 practically healthy children (16 boys and 14 girls) without neurological pathology with an average age of 7.3±1.5 years.Results and discussion. Children with LHP more often had disturbances in the tempo and prosodic characteristics of speech (43.7%). The rate of speech was disturbed in 33.8% of children, narrative speech - in 14.1%. These disorders are called "right hemispheric cortical dysarthria". Counting disorders were noted in 4.2% of children.In the group with RHP, violations of expressive speech were stated: "monologic" - in 88.7%, "dialogical" - in 86.8%, "automated" - in 17.0% of patients, not fluent speech - in 66.0%, slow - in 64.2%.Conclusion. The results of the study indicate a high degree of correlation of speech disorders and impaired cognitive functions with the severity of hemiparesis and structural changes on MRI of the brain. These results significantly differ from the corresponding indicators depending on the side of hemiparesis and sex. Determination of cognitive evoked potentials makes it possible to obtain additional information about the cognitive status of patients with cerebral palsy, depending on the lateralization of the lesion.