Magnetic resonance imaging infarct topography may assist with determining stroke etiology. The influence of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)-positive lesions on etiology determination in patients ...with transient ischemic attack or minor stroke is not well studied.
We prospectively enrolled patients between 2010 and 2017 in 2 studies; participants with a final diagnosis of probable or definite transient ischemic attack or stroke were pooled for analysis. The primary outcome was the adjudicated ischemic etiology. We compared proportion of each etiology (cardioembolic, large-vessel, small-vessel disease, other) in patients who had DWI positivity compared with DWI negativity. We used logistic regression to determine the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for each etiology compared with undetermined by DWI positivity. The final analysis included 1498 patients: 832 (55.5%) were DWI-positive. DWI-positive patients were more likely to be diagnosed with small-vessel disease (19.1% versus 5.3%) and less likely with undetermined etiology (36.9% versus 53.0%;
<0.001). After adjustment, the presence of any DWI lesion was associated with increased odds of assigning any etiology (OR, 1.8 95% CI, 1.3-2.5). A single DWI lesion was associated with increased odds of small-vessel disease diagnosis (OR, 9.5 95% CI, 6.4-14.0), and multiple DWI lesions with reduced odds of small-vessel disease (OR, 0.2 95% CI, 0.1-0.4) but increased odds of all other etiologies compared with undetermined etiology.
Any DWI-positive lesion after suspected transient ischemic attack or minor stroke was associated with increased odds of assigning a etiology. Presence and topography of DWI lesions on magnetic resonance imaging may assist with etiology determination and may impact stroke prevention therapies.
We validate our previously developed (DOI: 10.1101/089227) clinical prediction rule for diagnosing transient ischemic attack on the basis of presenting clinical symptoms and compare its performance ...with the ABCD2 score in first-contact patient settings. Two independent and prospectively collected patient validation cohorts were used: (a) referral cohort–prospectively referred emergency department and general practitioner patients (N = 877); and (b) SpecTRA cohort–participants recruited as part of the SpecTRA biomarker project (N = 545). Outcome measure consisted of imaging-confirmed clinical diagnosis of mild stroke/transient ischemic attack. Results showed that our clinical prediction rule demonstrated significantly higher accuracy than the ABCD2 score for both the referral cohort (70.5% vs 59.0%; p < 0.001) and SpecTRA cohort (72.8% vs 68.3%; p = 0.028). We discuss the potential of our clinical prediction rule to replace the use of the ABCD2 score in the triage of transient ischemic attack clinic referrals.
Background The relationship between duration of transient neurological events and presence of diffusion-weighted lesions by symptom type is unclear. Methods and Results This was a substudy of SpecTRA ...(Spectrometry for Transient Ischemic Attack Rapid Assessment), a multicenter prospective cohort of patients with minor ischemic cerebrovascular events or stroke mimics at academic emergency departments in Canada. For this study we included patients with resolved symptoms and determined the presence of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) lesion on magnetic resonance imaging within 7 days. Using logistic regression, we evaluated the association between symptom duration and DWI lesion, assessing for interaction with symptom type (focal only versus nonfocal/mixed), and adjusting for age, sex, education, comorbidities, and systolic blood pressure. Of 658 patients included, a DWI lesion was present in 232 (35.1%). There was a significant interaction between symptom duration and symptom type. For those with focal-only symptoms, there was a continuous increase in DWI probability up to 24 hours in duration (ranging from ≈40% to 80% probability). In stratified analyses, the increase in probability of DWI lesion with increased duration of focal symptoms was seen in women but not men. For those with nonfocal or mixed symptoms, predicted probability of DWI lesion was ≈35% and was greater in men, but did not increase with longer duration. Conclusions Increased duration of neurological deficits is associated with greater probability of DWI lesion in those with focal symptoms only. For individuals with nonfocal or mixed symptoms, about one-third had DWI lesions, but the probability did not increase with duration. These results may be important to improve risk stratification of transient neurological events.
Elevated blood pressure (BP) at emergency department (ED) presentation and advancing age have been associated with risk of ischemic stroke; however, the relationship between BP, age, and transient ...ischemic attack/minor stroke (TIA/MS) is not clear.
A multi-site, prospective, observational study of 1084 ED patients screened for suspected TIA/MS (symptom onset < 24 h, NIHSS< 4) between December 2013 and April 2016. Systolic and diastolic BP measurements (SBP, DBP) were taken at ED presentation. Final diagnosis was consensus adjudication by stroke neurologists; patients were diagnosed as either TIA/MS or stroke-mimic (non-cerebrovascular conditions). Conditional inference trees were used to define age cut-points for predicting binary diagnosis (TIA/MS or stroke-mimic). Logistic regression models were used to estimate the effect of BP, age, sex, and the age-BP interaction on predicting TIA/MS diagnosis.
Over a 28-month period, 768 (71%) patients were diagnosed with TIA/MS: these patients were older (mean 71.6 years) and more likely to be male (58%) than stroke-mimics (61.4 years, 41%; each p < 0.001). TIA/MS patients had higher SBP than stroke-mimics (p < 0.001). DBP did not differ between the two groups (p = 0.191). SBP was predictive of TIA/MS diagnosis in younger patients, after accounting for age and sex; an increase of 10 mmHg systolic increased the odds of TIA/MS 18% (odds ratio OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.00-1.39) in patients < 60 years, and 23% (OR 1.23, 95% CI 11.12-1.35) in those 60-79 years, while not affecting the odds of TIA/MS in patients ≥80 years (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.89-1.07).
Raised SBP in patients younger than 80 with suspected TIA/MS may be a useful clinical indicator upon initial presentation to help increase clinicians' suspicion of TIA/MS.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03050099 (10-Feb-2017) and NCT03070067 (3-Mar-2017). Retrospectively registered.
To evaluate the performance of a novel triage system for Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) units built upon an existent clinical prediction rule (CPR) to reduce time to unit arrival, relative to the ...time of symptom onset, for true TIA and minor stroke patients. Differentiating between true and false TIA/minor stroke cases (mimics) is necessary for effective triage as medical intervention for true TIA/minor stroke is time-sensitive and TIA unit spots are a finite resource.
Prospective cohort study design utilizing patient referral data and TIA unit arrival times from a regional fast-track TIA unit on Vancouver Island, Canada, accepting referrals from emergency departments (ED) and general practice (GP). Historical referral cohort (N = 2942) from May 2013-Oct 2014 was triaged using the ABCD2 score; prospective referral cohort (N = 2929) from Nov 2014-Apr 2016 was triaged using the novel system. A retrospective survival curve analysis, censored at 28 days to unit arrival, was used to compare days to unit arrival from event date between cohort patients matched by low (0-3), moderate (4-5) and high (6-7) ABCD2 scores.
Survival curve analysis indicated that using the novel triage system, prospectively referred TIA/minor stroke patients with low and moderate ABCD2 scores arrived at the unit 2 and 1 day earlier than matched historical patients, respectively.
The novel triage process is associated with a reduction in time to unit arrival from symptom onset for referred true TIA/minor stroke patients with low and moderate ABCD2 scores.
OBJECTIVES:Natural health products (NHP) are increasingly being used to supplement prescription medications (PM) and over-the-counter (OTC) products. The objective of this study was to examine ...patterns of overall health product use and how these patterns are associated with social and health factors.
METHODS:We used direct health measures data from the Canada Health Measures Survey (CHMS) Cycle 1.0 (2007/2009) to examine recent product use among adults aged 18–79 years (n=3,721). Latent class analyses were used to detect use (propensity) and intensity of use among users of all three product types. Associations between social and health covariates and product patterns were examined using linear and multinomial logit regression procedures.
RESULTS:Three latent classes of health product use were identified. The largest (43%) was characterized by a high probability of PM and NHP but not OTC use. Class two (37%), in contrast, had a low probability of using any of the three health products. Class three (20%) had a high probability of PM and OTC but not NHP use. Age, gender, immigrant status, household size, co-morbidity, perceived health status, and having a regular doctor were associated with these patterns of use. Analyses of intensity of product use among users revealed seven distinct classes; these were differentiated by age, household size, co-morbidity and weight (BMI status).
CONCLUSION:If defining polypharmacy or polyherbacy is based simply on number of health products used, then for Canadians under age 80 neither practice appeared to be widespread. More work needs to be done to define the “poly” in polypharmacy and polyherbacy. This will inform the conversation on appropriate product use, particularly given that about one half of Canadians used medications and NHPs concurrently.
Objective: to conduct a systematic review of published studies that test the validity and reliability of fall-risk assessment tools for use among older adults in community, home-support, long-term ...and acute care settings. Methods: searches were conducted in EbscoHost and MEDLINE for published studies in the English language between January 1980 and July 2004, where the primary or secondary purpose was to test the predictive value of one or more fall assessment tools on a population primarily 65 years and older. The tool must have had as its primary outcome falls, fall-related injury or gait/balance. Only studies that used prospective validation were considered. Findings: thirty-four articles testing 38 different tools met the inclusion criteria. The community setting represents the largest number of studies (14) and tools (23) tested, followed by acute (12 studies and 8 tools), long-term care (LTC) (6 studies and 10 tools) and home-support (4 studies and 4 tools). Eleven of the 38 tools are multifactorial assessment tools (MAT) that cover a wide range of fall-risk factors, and 27 are functional mobility assessment tools (FMA) that involve measures of physical activity related to gait, strength or balance. Conclusion: fall-risk assessment tools exist that show moderate to good validity and reliability in most health service delivery areas. However, few tools were tested more than once or in more than one setting. Therefore, no single tool can be recommended for implementation in all settings or for all subpopulations within each setting.
The association between focal vs nonfocal presenting symptom and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) positivity in relation to onset-to-imaging time in patients with transient neurologic events remains ...unclear. We hypothesize that episodes consisting of focal symptoms would have proportionally higher DWI-positive imaging at later onset-to-imaging times.
Patients with transient neurologic symptoms and a normal neurologic examination who had DWI in the combined data set of 3 cohort studies were included. We used logistic regression models to evaluate the association between each type of presenting symptom (motor weakness, speech impairment, sensory symptoms, vision loss, diplopia, gait instability, dizziness, headache, presyncope, and amnesia) and DWI positivity after adjusting for clinical variables (age, sex, history of stroke, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, symptoms duration <10, 10-59, ≥60 minutes, or unclear, and study source). We stratified the results by onset-to-imaging time categories (<6 hours, 6-23 hours, and ≥24 hours).
Of the total 2,411 patients (1,345 male, median age 68 years), DWI-positive lesions were detected in 598 patients (24.8%). The prevalence of DWI positivity was highest in those with motor weakness (34.7%), followed by speech impairment (33.5%). In a multivariable analysis, the presence of motor weakness, speech impairment, and sensory symptoms was associated with DWI positivity, while vision loss and headache were associated with lower odds of DWI positivity, but nevertheless had 13.6% and 15.3% frequency of DWI positive. The odds of being DWI positive varied by onset-to-imaging time categories for motor weakness, with greater odds of being DWI positive at later imaging time (<6 hours: odds ratio OR 1.25, 95% confidence interval CI 0.84-1.87; 6-23 hours: OR 2.24, 95% CI 1.47-3.42; and ≥24 hours: OR 2.42, 95% CI 1.74-3.36; interaction
= 0.033). Associations of other symptoms with DWI positivity did not vary significantly by time categories.
We found that onset-to-imaging time influences the relationship between motor weakness and DWI positivity in patients with transient neurologic events. Compared with motor, speech, and sensory symptoms, visual or nonfocal symptoms carry a lower but still a substantive association with DWI positivity.
Homecare nurses provide essential healthcare services at home. Changes in the nature of homecare nursing practice, however, suggest that older and frail homecare clients are less likely to have ...timely access to needed homecare nursing services as acute management takes priority. This has an impact on people's ability to be cared for and to die at home, a reported priority for many Canadians. This study highlights how health system changes may be constraining homecare nurses' abilities to enact care that is consistent with palliative care principles and philosophies, and calls for consideration of how shifts in homecare nursing practice have implications for families and clients receiving palliative care at home.
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