Dysarthria

Background

  • Motor speech disorder characterized by poor articulation of language sounds or pronounciation[1]
  • Cranial nerves involved include trigeminal nerve's motor branch (V), facial nerve (VII), glossopharyngeal nerve (IX), vagus nerve (X), and hypoglossal nerve (XII).

Clinical Features

  • Includes abnormality to any of the following: breath control, duration of syllables, pitch, range, speed, steadiness, timing, tone, vocal quality, pitch, volume[2]

Differential Diagnosis

Stroke Types

Weakness

Neuromuscular weakness

Evaluation

  • Clinical diagnosis
  • Consider CVA or other neurologic workup

Management

  • Treat underlying cause
  • Speech pathology

Disposition

  • Depends on underlying cause

See Also

References

  1. Duffy, J. Defining, Understanding, and Categorizing Motor Speech Disorders. In: Duffy, J. Motor Speech Disorders: Substrates, Differential Diagnosis, and Management. 3rd ed. . St. Louis, Mo: Elsevier Mosby; 2012 ISBN 0323024521.
  2. MacKenzie, C (2011). "Dysarthria in stroke: A narrative review of its description and the outcome of intervention". International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 13 (2): 125–36. doi:10.3109/17549507.2011.524940. PMID 21480809