Deans' stroke musings: DRAGON Score Helps Predict Functional Outcomes in Stroke

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

DRAGON Score Helps Predict Functional Outcomes in Stroke

They did at least talk about a CAT scan but no PET scan to show the penumbra. So I
don 't think this is really valid. And a three month outcome doesn't follow the normal 6-12 month spontaneous recovery.
http://www.doctorslounge.com/index.php/news/pb/26557
A new scoring method can aid clinicians in predicting functional outcomes for patients with ischemic stroke receiving intravenous alteplase, according to a study published in the Feb. 7 issue of Neurology.
MONDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- A new scoring method can aid clinicians in predicting functional outcomes for patients with ischemic stroke receiving intravenous (IV) alteplase, according to a study published in the Feb. 7 issue of Neurology.
Daniel Strbian, M.D., Ph.D., of Helsinki University Central Hospital, and colleagues developed a functional outcome prediction score by studying the immediate pretreatment parameters and three-month outcomes in 1,319 ischemic stroke patients treated with IV alteplase. The accuracy of the model was evaluated with bootstrapping. External validation was performed in a cohort of 330 patients treated at the University Hospital Basel in Switzerland.
The researchers developed the 10-point DRAGON scale based on (hyper)Dense cerebral artery sign or early infarct signs on admission computed tomography scan; prestroke modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score; Age; Glucose level at baseline; Onset-to-treatment time; and baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve was 0.84 in the original cohort and 0.80 in the validation cohort. For patients with a score of 0-1, 2, 3, and 8-10 points, the proportions of patients with good outcomes (mRS score, 0 to 2) were 96, 88, 74, and 0 percent, respectively. For patients with a score of 0-1, 2, 3, 8, and 9-10 points, the proportions with miserable outcomes (mRS score, 5 to 6) were 0, 2, 5, 70, and 100 percent, respectively. Similar results were seen with external validation.
"The DRAGON score is valid at our site and was reliable externally," the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies. One author disclosed involvement with patents related to the study subject matter.