Deans' stroke musings: What predicts a poor outcome in older stroke survivors? A systematic review of the literature.

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.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

What predicts a poor outcome in older stroke survivors? A systematic review of the literature.

Well shit, if we had a decent strategy and plan for stroke we wouldn't pay for this kind of research. We'd go directly to solving and preventing dead and damaged neurons during the neuronal cascade of death.
http://search.naric.com/research/rehab/redesign_record.cfm?search=2&type=all&criteria=J67331&phrase=no&rec=123147
NARIC Accession Number: J67331. What's this?
ISSN: 0963-8288.
Author(s): van Almenkerk, Suzanne; Smalbrugge, Martin; Depla, Marja F. I. A.; Eefsting, Jan A.; Hertogh, Cees M. P. M..
Publication Year: 2013.
Number of Pages: 9.
Abstract: This review identified factors in the early post-stroke period that have a predictive value for a poor outcome, defined as institutionalization or severe disability. MEDLINE, PSYCINFO, EMBASE and CINAHL databases were systematically searched for observational cohort studies in which adult and/or elderly stroke patients were assessed within 1 month post-stroke and poor outcome was determined after a follow-up of at least 3 months. Thirty-three articles were selected from 4063 records, describing 27 independent cohort studies. There are rather consistent findings that greater age, a more severe stroke (measured through a clinical evaluation scale), the presence of urinary incontinence (with impaired awareness), and a larger stroke volume (measured through brain imaging techniques) predict poor stroke outcome. In contrast to clinical expectations, the prognostic value of dependency in activities of daily living and impaired cognition remains unclear, and factors in the domains of emotional and communicative functioning rarely feature. Studies using a selected group of stroke patients tended to identify different predictors. The current evidence is insufficient for the development of a clinical prediction tool that is better than physicians’ informal predictions. Future research should focus on the selection of optimal screening instruments in multiple domains of functioning, including the timing of assessment. The authors suggest developing prediction tools stratified by more homogeneous, clinically distinguished stroke subtypes.
Descriptor Terms: CLIENT CHARACTERISTICS, INSTITUTIONALIZATION, LITERATURE REVIEWS, MEDICAL ASPECTS, OLDER ADULTS, OUTCOMES, PREDICTION, SEVERE DISABILITIES, STROKE.