Long-term perceived disabilities up to 10 years after transient ischaemic attack.

BACKGROUND: The long-term impact of transient ischaemic attack is largely unknown. OBJECTIVES: To assess the long-term perceived impact of transient ischaemic attack and explore the influence of sex and age on these perceptions; and to evaluate the relationships between activities of daily living, participation and overall recovery, and the other domains of the Stroke Impact Scale 3.0 (SIS). METHODS: A retrospective study among adult community-dwelling individuals from 6 months up to 10 years after onset of transient ischaemic attack. A total of 299 survivors of transient ischaemic attack responded to the SIS. RESULTS: Most self-reported disabilities involved emotion, strength, and participation domains of SIS and remained stable until 10 years post-transient ischaemic attack. Women reported significantly more disabilities for emotion and hand function. Elderly subjects (age > 65 years) reported more disabilities for strength, mobility, hand function, activities of daily living/instrumental activities of daily living, and participation. The activities of daily living/instrumental activities of daily living, participation, and overall recovery demonstrated significant, although low-to-moderate, associations with other SIS domains after transient ischaemic attack. CONCLUSION: The broadly perceived disabilities were demonstrated consistently and played a significant meaningful role in everyday life and recovery among community-dwelling individuals up to 10 years after a transient ischaemic attack. These findings indicate the need for long-term multi-professional follow-up with holistic rehabilitation to improve overall recovery among survivors of transient ischaemic attack.

Identifying Sub-Acute Rehabilitation Needs Among Individuals After Transient Ischaemic Attack Using Rehab-Compass as a Simple Screening Tool in the Outpatient Clinic.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate comprehensive unmet rehabilitation needs by using a novel graphic screening tool, Rehab-Compass, among individuals in the sub-acute stage after first-ever transient ischaemic attack. METHODS: A pilot prospective cohort study investigated 47 individuals with first-ever transient ischaemic attack in an outpatient clinic setting. By using Rehab-Compass, based on well-validated patient-reported outcome measure questionnaires, this study examined comprehensive unmet rehabilitation needs among individuals at 4-month follow-up after the onset of transient ischaemic attack. RESULTS: Rehab-Compass identified that most participants were independent in their daily lives (modified Rankin Scale; mRS 0-1) with a relatively good quality of life (median EuroQol 5 dimensions (EQ-5D) 0.85), but certain limitations in participation in their daily lives. Rehab-Compass showed that, at 4 months after transient ischaemic attack, the most common condition affected was mood (reported by 89% of participants), followed by bladder function (70%), sexual life (52%), strength (51%) and fatigue (26%). Symptoms of depression and anxiety were reported by 6% and 17% of participants, respectively. CONCLUSION: This pilot study indicates that RehabCompass might be a suitable simple screening tool for use in the outpatient clinic setting to identify the multidimensional rehabilitation needs of individuals after transient ischaemic attack.

Identifying Unmet Rehabilitation Needs in Patients After Stroke With a Graphic Rehab-CompassTM.

BACKGROUND: Unmet rehabilitation needs are common among stroke survivors. We aimed to evaluate whether a comprehensive graphic "Rehab-Compass," a novel combination of structured patient-reported outcome measures, was feasible and useful in facilitating a capture of patients' rehabilitation needs in clinical practice. METHODS: A new graphic overview of broad unmet rehabilitation needs covers deficits in functioning, daily activity, participation, and quality of life. It was constructed by using 5 patient-oriented, well-validated, and reliable existing instruments with converted data into a 0 (worst outcome) to 100 (best outcome) scale but unchanged in terms of variable properties. Satisfaction of the Rehab-CompassTM was studied by a qualitative interview of 9 patients with stroke and 3 clinicians. Practical feasibility and capacity of the instrument were evaluated in a cross-sectionalstudy with 48 patients at 5-month follow-ups after subarachnoid hemorrhage. RESULTS: The Rehab-CompassTM identified and graphically visualized a panoramic view of the multidimensional needs over time which was completed before clinical consultation. The Rehab-CompassTM appeared to be feasible and time-efficientin clinical use. The interviews of both patients and clinicians showed high satisfaction when using the Rehab-CompassTM graph. In the studied stroke patients, the Rehab-CompassTM identified memory and processing information, fatigue, mood, and pain after subarachnoid hemorrhage as the most common problems. CONCLUSIONS: The graphic Rehab-CompassTM seems to be a feasible, useful, and time-saving tool for identification of unmet rehabilitation needs among stroke survivors in clinical practice. Further research is needed to make the Rehab-CompassTM more concise and evaluate the instrument among different stroke subgroups.