This study was a secondary analysis conducted on a large database already used in some previous studies [3 (link),5 (link),12 (link),13 (link)] and further augmented with new data. The inclusion criteria were: diagnosis of ischemic stroke confirmed by brain imaging (magnetic resonance imaging or computerized tomography), subacute phase of stroke, and admission to a neurorehabilitation hospital. The exclusion criteria were: previous cerebrovascular accidents, hemorrhagic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and presence of other chronic disabling pathologies (i.e., severe Parkinson’s disease, polyneuropathy, cancer, or limb amputation).
Because our hospital is also an institute of research, at the time of admission all patients signed an informed consent for the utilization of their data in translational research. In the present study, a sample of 862 patients was extracted from the dataset according to the above inclusion/exclusion criteria and further divided into a subgroup previously treated with thrombolysis (TG) and another not treated with it (NTG).
The dataset reported for each patient consisted of 22 variables accounted for at admission to the neurorehabilitation hospital. The variables were as follows: age (continuous variable), time (days) between the stroke acute event and admission into the neurorehabilitation hospital (DAS, continuous variable), Barthel Index score (BI) at admission (ordinal variable, Barthel Index is a clinical scale assessing the independency of a patient into the activities of daily living), and binary variables such as gender, if patients received thrombolysis, damaged hemisphere, if there was a diagnosis of hypertension, heart diseases, diabetes, depression, epilepsy, dysphagia, malnutrition, obesity, Broca’s aphasia (related to deficits in speech and language production), Wernicke’s aphasia (related to deficits in language understanding), global aphasia (including both the previous types of language deficits), unilateral spatial neglect (USN, related to deficits in reporting or responding to stimuli presented from the space contralateral to the lesion, often a right hemisphere lesion), and the category of Bamford classification. This latter variable refers to the anatomical type of stroke and was further divided into four binary variables, in accordance with previous studies that dichotomized each one of these categories [3 (link),5 (link)]: TACI (total anterior circulatory infarction), PACI (partial anterior), POCI (partial posterior), and LACI (lateral anterior).
The dependent variable was the outcome: good responders were defined as subjects who were discharged from a neurorehabilitation hospital with a BI-score >75, whereas low-medium responders were those who died, were transferred to emergency hospitals, or were discharged with a BI-score ≤75.
Because our hospital is also an institute of research, at the time of admission all patients signed an informed consent for the utilization of their data in translational research. In the present study, a sample of 862 patients was extracted from the dataset according to the above inclusion/exclusion criteria and further divided into a subgroup previously treated with thrombolysis (TG) and another not treated with it (NTG).
The dataset reported for each patient consisted of 22 variables accounted for at admission to the neurorehabilitation hospital. The variables were as follows: age (continuous variable), time (days) between the stroke acute event and admission into the neurorehabilitation hospital (DAS, continuous variable), Barthel Index score (BI) at admission (ordinal variable, Barthel Index is a clinical scale assessing the independency of a patient into the activities of daily living), and binary variables such as gender, if patients received thrombolysis, damaged hemisphere, if there was a diagnosis of hypertension, heart diseases, diabetes, depression, epilepsy, dysphagia, malnutrition, obesity, Broca’s aphasia (related to deficits in speech and language production), Wernicke’s aphasia (related to deficits in language understanding), global aphasia (including both the previous types of language deficits), unilateral spatial neglect (USN, related to deficits in reporting or responding to stimuli presented from the space contralateral to the lesion, often a right hemisphere lesion), and the category of Bamford classification. This latter variable refers to the anatomical type of stroke and was further divided into four binary variables, in accordance with previous studies that dichotomized each one of these categories [3 (link),5 (link)]: TACI (total anterior circulatory infarction), PACI (partial anterior), POCI (partial posterior), and LACI (lateral anterior).
The dependent variable was the outcome: good responders were defined as subjects who were discharged from a neurorehabilitation hospital with a BI-score >75, whereas low-medium responders were those who died, were transferred to emergency hospitals, or were discharged with a BI-score ≤75.
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