A patient's spontaneous speech is fluent but he cannot name any of the common objects shown to him, though his grammar, sentence structure, and comprehension of both spoken and written language are entirely intact. Before revealing the answer: is this best described simply as intermediate aphasia, or does it fit one of its more specific named sub-types?
This fits the more specific named sub-type of nominal aphasia rather than needing to stop at the broader intermediate aphasia category. The disproportionate, isolated naming difficulty with otherwise fully intact grammar and comprehension is precisely the defining pattern of nominal aphasia, one of the two named forms that intermediate aphasia comprises, so the more specific and clinically informative label should be used once the pattern is this clear.
References
- Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Ch. 4, 'Disorders of Thought and Speech'.