AIM This paper reports an investigation of the diagnostic accuracy of the Care Dependency Scale (CDS). BACKGROUND Assessment tools can be described in terms of diagnostic accuracy, or the ability to correctly classify subjects into clinically relevant subgroups. Diagnostic accuracy can be determined by several techniques as sensitivity, specificity, receiver operating curve analysis and likel...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The stroke patient population is heterogeneous, leading to wide variation in outcome caused by differences in age, initial severity, and presence of concomitant disease. Setting an identical recovery target for all patients in intervention trials may conceal individually important therapeutic treatment effects. Instead, a variable end point that takes severity or likely p...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Physical functional disabilities in hemodialysis (HD) patients may increase their mortality and long-term care needs. The aim of this study was to estimate the changes of proportion for different physical functional disabilities along time after beginning HD and the lifelong care needs. METHODS We used a population-based cohort consisting of 84,657 incident HD patien...

OBJECTIVE We aimed to investigate the appropriateness of the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) in predicting functional ability in older adults. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Participants were recruited from the Kahrizak Charity Foundation (KCF). MEASUREMENTS Nutritional and ability status were examined using the MNA and the Barthel Index (BI). Participants were divided according ...

BACKGROUND There is growing evidence that inflammation plays an important role in atherogenesis. Previous studies show that C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammatory marker, is associated with stroke outcomes and future vascular events. It is not clear whether this is due a direct dose-response effect or rather an epiphenomenon. We studied the effect of CRP measured within 24 hours after stroke...

The relationship between upper extremity motor function and independence in basic activities of daily living in subjects with hemiplegia was explored. The Barthel Index (Mahoney & Barthel, 1965) and the Fugl-Meyer Test (Fugl-Meyer, Jääskö, Leyman, Olsson, & Steglind, 1975) were selected as the standard instruments for the evaluation of activities of daily living and upper extremity motor functi...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Several trials have shown that stroke unit care improves outcome for stroke patients. The aim of the present trial was to evaluate the effects of an extended stroke unit service (ESUS), with early supported discharge, cooperation with the primary healthcare system, and more emphasis on rehabilitation at home as essential elements. METHODS In a randomized, controlled tri...

No single outcome measure can describe or predict all dimensions of recovery and disability after acute stroke. Several scales have proven reliability and validity in stroke trials, including the National Institutes of Health stroke scale (NIHSS), the modified Rankin scale (mRS), the Barthel index (BI), the Glasgow outcome scale (GOS), and the stroke impact scale (SIS). Several scales have been...

Using the formulae for prediction of functional status at 4, 8 and 12 weeks after admission in the stroke patient (simplified version of Recovery Evaluating System-3; RES-3) and demographic data at the admission of 128 stroke patients, the estimated scores of four measures, Motor Age Score (MOA), Manual Function Score (MFS), Barthel Index (BI) and Mini-Mental State (MMS), were obtained. Fitness...

In ischaemic stroke, expansion of the infarct core occurs at the expense of surrounding hypoxic, metabolically compromised tissue over a period of 24 h or more in a considerable proportion of patients. It is uncertain whether hypoxic tissue observed at later times after stroke onset retains the potential for survival or whether such survival has an impact on functional outcome. These factors ma...