Index
With the appearance of this pathology, the individual loses the ability to vocalize words.
Anartria manifests as a language disorder or inability to speak due to damage to motor nerves that fail to perform their function to articulate speech phonemes.
A part of the brain maintains control over the larynx or the voice box.
When this part of the brain is damaged due to injury or any other factor, it causes problems for the neuromuscular apparatus, which provides the articulatory component.
This makes the production of spoken sounds possible with the help of the buccofacial musculature, from the larynx, the pharynx, the tongue, the throat, the teeth and soft palate, the cheeks, and the muscles of speech and voice.
They become fragile, so they stop producing logical and clear speech sounds.
Anartria is often a progressive condition of Broca’s aphasia, an oral and written communication disorder. Still, in the case of anarthria, it is presented only as of the inability to articulate sounds.
Causes
The causes of anarthria may be due to any process or disease that may occur in the cerebellum, the posterior parts of the frontal lobe, the brainstem, and the conductive pathways that connect these areas with other parts of the brain and that break the structure or irritate the subcortical ganglia.
Among the most common causes we have:
- An acute or chronic disorder of the cerebral circulation.
- A stroke or hemorrhage in the brain.
- Abscess in the brain or cerebellum.
- Brain injury caused by trauma.
- Tumors of the brain or cerebellum.
- Demyelinating diseases are accompanied by the decomposition of myelin, such as disseminated encephalomyelitis and multiple sclerosis.
- Poisoning with poisons such as heavy metal salts.
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
- Syringobulbia is a disease characterized by pathological cavities in the brain stem that interrupt the conduction of nerve impulses.
- Botulism.
- The Fazio-Londe syndrome is a progressive hereditary disease that manifests itself in adolescence as dysarthria due to a problem with swallowing.
- Infections
symptom
Among the symptoms that can occur, we have:
- Drag words when speaking all words with a stammer, with great difficulty, as in the nose.
- Decrease in the ability to pronounce letters, terms, and, sometimes, even sounds. In addition, there are changes in the timbre of the voice, hoarseness, and choppy voice is observed.
- There is limited mobility of the tongue, lips, and jaw, drooling or poor saliva control, and difficulty chewing and swallowing.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis of inertia includes:
- Compilation and analysis of symptoms: speech disorders, thinning of the tongue muscles, inability to pronounce words, letters, and verification of the presence of similar symptoms in the patient’s family history.
- Neurological examination: an examination of the pharyngeal, mandibular reflexes, analysis of the pharynx, detection of possible atrophy (thinning) of the tongue muscles, weakness of the facial muscles, asymmetry of the face.
- Inspection by an otolaryngologist: an examination of the pharynx, nose, and laryngeal cavity to reveal pathological processes that can modify the pronunciation of the words as trauma or tumor.
- A survey conducted by a speech therapist: included an evaluation of the presence of changes in the timbre and the rhythm of speech and difficulties in the pronunciation of any sound.
- Computed tomography, the magnetic resonance of the head: allows studying the structure of the brain layer by layer, identifying the cause of the anarthria, and checking if there are foci of circulatory disorders, abscesses, tumors, principles of the main protein of myelin.
Types
The classification of Anartria depends on the location of the nervous system lesion:
- Flaccid: with lesions of the glossopharyngeal, sublingual, vagus nerves and their nuclei, disorders of neuromuscular transmission.
- Spastic: caused by bilateral central paralysis or paresis of muscles innervated by the wandering, sublingual and glossopharyngeal nerves due to bilateral damage to the corticospinal tracts and anterior central convolutions (it is a component of the pseudobulbar syndrome).
- Unilateral monotoneural superior: it is caused mainly by unilateral central paralysis or paresis of muscles innervated by wandering, sublingual, glossopharyngeal nerves and occurs as a result of unilateral damage to the cortico-nuclear pathways and the frontal central gyrus.
- Ataxic: is caused by problems in the conductive paths of the cerebellum.
- Hyperkinetic: is a type of extrapyramidal dysarthria that develops in defeating the subcortical ganglia and their neuronal connections.
- Hypokinetic is a type of extrapyramidal dysarthria that occurs when the subcortical nodes and their nerve connections are damaged.
- Mixed: includes two or more kinds.
Treatment
The treatment of anartria involves the therapy of the underlying disease that caused this speech disorder:
- Surgical removal of the tumor, hemorrhage, and abscess of the cranial cavity confused.
- Antibacterial therapy in case of infections.
- Normalization of blood pressure.
- The use of medications that improve cerebral circulation and metabolism, nootropics such as piracetam, angioprotectores.
- Language therapies correct an existing defect with the help of special exercises.
- Physiotherapy such as magnetotherapy, which is exposure to ultra-high frequency currents, and the use of acupuncture.
