Conduction Aphasia in a Case of Left Cortical Veins and Left Lateral Sinus Thrombosis Due to Multiple Risk Factors: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Aphasia is a complex neurological syndrome that includes a multitude of signs and symptoms that describe a patient’s inability to use language (understanding and producing spoken and/or written language) after it has already been acquired, which is caused by cerebral lesions situated in the dominant (left) cerebral hemisphere in right-handed people. Aphasia has a prevalence of 25–30% in acute ischemic stroke (especially in arterial infarcts). In patients who suffered cerebral venous and dural sinuses thrombosis (CVST), aphasia has been noticed in almost 20% of cases, its presence being considered a negative predictive factor. We report the case of a 22-year-old right-handed woman with obesity and active smoking (10 cigarettes/day), undergoing treatment with oral contraceptives who presented to the Emergency Department with an intense headache, resistant to usual analgesic treatment, accompanied by language disorders onset within 24 h. The neurological examination was normal, except for language assessment, which revealed the severe impairment of the repetition domain (she was unable to repeat simple words), and difficulty in naming objects with some hesitations and mild comprehension difficulties (especially in complex orders). She underwent neuroimaging examinations at admission. Native Head Computed Tomography revealed spontaneous hyperdensity (parenchymatous hematoma) in the left temporal lobe. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmed venous infarction in the left temporal area and a hypointense signal on MRI T2*SW (susceptibility-weighted) in the region of the left lateral sinus and left jugular vein bulb, which confirmed the thrombosis at this level. Associated cortical vein thrombosis was diagnosed on indirect radiological grounds, since hemorrhagic transformation obscured the direct visualization of the adjacent cortical veins. MR venography was not performed at that time, but instead at the 1-month follow-up, MR venography confirmed the chronic, partial thrombosis of the left lateral sinus and left jugular vein bulb. Laboratory data demonstrated an elevated D-dimer and the presence of homozygosity for MTHFR C677T and PAI-1 4G/4G. Anticoagulation in the form of low-molecular-weight heparin was immediately started, followed by chronic treatment with oral anticoagulant (apixaban) and folic acid. The headaches resolved within three days, and her neurological examination was almost normal: the repetition continued being altered for complex phrases. We did not observe any left lateral sinus thrombosis recurrence, or other extra-cerebral embolic events (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) during the follow-up year. The immediate anticoagulation since the admission resulted in a favorable outcome. Taking into consideration our interest in monitoring patients with aphasia secondary to CVST, we also analyzed data from the literature regarding the incidence of conduction aphasia and other aphasic syndromes in this CVST. Due to the limited number of articles identified in the last 21 years (2005–2026) in the literature, we concluded that conduction aphasia is an extremely rare clinical presentation in this kind of pathology and further studies should be conducted in order to identify significant statistical data.