Functional Recovery Patterns of Hemorrhagic and Ischemic Stroke Patients Under Post-Acute Care Rehabilitation Program

• Published in: Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment Vol. 16; pp. 1975 - 1985
• Main Authors: Chu, Chan-Lin, Chen, Yueh-Peng, Chen, Carl C P, Chen, Chih-Kuang, Chang, Hsiang-Ning, Chang, Chien-Hung, Pei, Yu-Cheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Zealand Dove Medical Press Limited 01.01.2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Dove; Dove Medical Press
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Age; Blood diseases; Care and treatment; Cerebrovascular disease; Cerebrovascular diseases; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Emotional disorders; functional recovery; Gait; Hemorrhage; hemorrhagic stroke; Hospitals; Ischemia; ischemic stroke; Language; Medical research; Mood disorders; Motor activity; Occupational therapy; Original Research; Patients; Physical therapists; Physical therapy; post-acute care; Quality of life; Recovery (Medical); Recovery of function; Rehabilitation; Speech therapy; Stroke; Stroke patients; Subacute care; Taiwan; rehabilitation; hemorrhagic stroke; post-acute care; functional recovery; activities of daily living; ischemic stroke
• ISSN: 1176-6328; 1178-2021; 1178-2021
• DOI: 10.2147/NDT.S253700

Tailored rehabilitation programs for stroke patients cannot be made without knowledge of their recovery potential. The aim of this study is to characterize the functional recovery patterns of ischemic stroke (IS) and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) patients under post-acute care stroke rehabilitation. This retrospective study analyzed the data of patients enrolled in the Post-Acute Care-Cerebrovascular Disease (PAC-CVD) rehabilitation program, which provides an individualized 1- to 3-hour intensive physical, occupational, and speech and language therapy for post-acute stroke patients in Taoyuan Chang Gung Memorial hospital in Taiwan. Our primary endpoint measure was Barthel Index (BI), and secondary endpoint measures included other 12 functional measures. A total of 489 patients were included for analysis. Patients with stroke history had less BI improvement than those who suffered their first-ever stroke. In first-ever stroke patients who had completed 6 to 12 weeks of PAC-CVD program, subcortical ICH patients had greater BI, quality of life, sensation, and balance improvements, and had greater late-phase recovery than their IS counterparts. In IS patients, those with age >75 had less BI improvement; those with National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score 1-5 had greater Motor Activity Log quality of use (MAL-quality) improvement than those with NIHSS score >5; those with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score ≥24 had greater BI and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) improvement. Using the general linear model, previous stroke (ß: -6.148, p=0.01) and subcortical ICH (ß: 5.04, p=0.03) were factors associated with BI improvement. Subcortical ICH patients have greater functional improvement and greater late-phase recovery than their IS counterparts following PAC rehabilitation. More studies are needed to validate our findings and unravel the underlying mechanisms of stroke recovery to optimize the treatment strategy following a stroke.