Article

The purpose was to compare the performance of three representative
instruments to measure changes of motor recovery with acute hemispheric stroke.
METHOD: In 41 consecutive patients with acute hemispheric infarction, motor
recovery was assessed within 3 days of onset and then every 2 weeks until the
12th week with the Stroke Impairment Assessment Set (SIAS), the National
Institutes of Health stroke scale (NIHSS) and the Canadian Neurological Scale
(CNS). We analyzed the relationships among the corresponding subscales of the
three instruments with the Spearman's rank correlation method, and compared their
responsiveness by plotting the temporal profiles of scores of each instrument and
by testing the significance of changes over time with the Friedman test. RESULTS:
High correlations were observed among the three instruments at each examination
point. However, the SIAS scores were more widely dispersed at the same NIHSS and
CNS scores. Friedman test revealed that the scores changed significantly during
the observation period with the SIAS and the CNS but not with the NIHSS. The
changes were detected later with the CNS than with the SIAS. CONCLUSIONS:
Although the assessment results with the three instruments were highly
inter-correlated, the SIAS performed better with respect to responsiveness to
changes. Implication for Rehabilitation When providing rehabilitation services to
patients with stroke, it is important to document objectively the level of their
impairment from the acute stage and during the entire course of rehabilitation
with standardized instrument, and to predict their functional outcomes as early
and accurately as possible. This study therefore compared three representative
instruments with established psychometric properties, the SIAS, the NIHSS and the
CNS, with respect to their ability to document motor impairment and their responsiveness to recovery in patients with acute hemispheric stroke.

Langue : ANGLAIS