Cerebellar hypoperfusion and developmental dysphasia in a male

A male with developmental dysphasia is documented with fine motor dysfuncti on whose improvement in expressive language was associated with increased c erebellar perfusion, as detected by serial N-isopropyl-p-[iodine-123] iodoa mphetamine single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). His expressi ve language has been improving since 6 years, 8 months of age, and his verb al intelligence quotient improved from less than 45 at 5 years of age to 80 at 8 years of age. Compared with the SPECT findings at 4 years of age, the ratio of the average pixel values of the cerebellum to the frontal cortice s increased at 9 years of age (from 0.81 to 1.03-1.09 in the hemisphere and from 0.66 to 0.98 in the vermis). However, he was not able to understand s tories presented orally even at 9 years, 4 months of age. These results sug gest that developmental dysphasia, which mostly involves expressive impairm ent, in this patient could have been the result of delayed maturation of ce rebellar function, mainly that of the vermis. (C) 1999 by Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.