Predictors of functional outcome after right hemisphere stroke in patients with or without thrombolytic treatment

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the predictors of functional outcome after right hemisphere stroke at 6-month follow up in patients with or without thrombolytic treatment. Thrombolysis did not predict functional outcome in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Lower acute phase basic activities of daily living (ADL) measured by the Barthel Index was a statistically significant predictor of IADL when adjusted for age and education (p = .015) and had borderline significance (p = .076) as a predictor of functional outcome when adjusted for severity of stroke at admission. When stroke severity was taken into account also higher age became a statistically significant (p = .039) predictor of functional outcome. The acute phase neuropsychological symptoms predicted the functional outcome in unadjusted analyses but when adjusted for age, education, and severity of stroke no independent association was found.

Keywords:

• Functional outcome
• Neuropsychological symptoms
• Stroke
• Thrombolysis

Acknowledgments

We thank MD, neurologist Jyrki Ollikainen from the Department of Neurosciences and Rehabilitation/Tampere University Hospital for carrying out the neurological examinations of the patients.