Abstract
We report a case of pure Gerstmann syndrome due to a lesion in the left frontal lobe. This 31-year-old, right-handed female showed finger agnosia, right-left disorientation, agraphia and acalculia after the removal of a brain tumor of the left frontal lobe. Neurologically she was otherwise normal, and her level of consciousness was alert. Her speech was fluent with normal prosody and articulation. Her comprehension was good and she experienced no difficulty in word finding. Repetition and reading abilities were normal. Constructional apraxia was not evident. An MRI revealed a focal lesion confined to the left middle frontal gyrus.
A verbal test of finger naming and pointing revealed finger agnosia, but a non-verbal test showed no disability of recognition of her own fingers. Right-left discrimination was more difficult on the examiner's body than on her own. She showed disability in writing Kanji, while she was good at copying Kanji and did not show apraxic agraphia. Her acalculia was characterized by anarithmetia.
The special feature of this case is Gerstmann syndrome which was caused by a focal lesion of the left frontal lobe but not accompanied by aphasic disorders or general mental dysfunction.
