title: Severity of unilateral spatial neglect is an independent predictor of functional outcome after acute inpatient rehabilitation in individuals with right hemispheric stroke.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the relationship between severity of unilateral spatial neglect (USN) and functional recovery in activities of daily living after a right-hemisphere stroke.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observational study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Rehabilitation hospital in Italy.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated 107 of 131 inpatients with right-hemisphere stroke who were consecutively admitted to our rehabilitation hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Not applicable.
  
  
  METHODS
  To assess USN severity, conventional and nonconventional Behavioral Inattention Tests (BITs) were performed at admission to inpatient rehabilitation at a median of 19 days after stroke occurrence. FIM was performed both on admission to and discharge from inpatient rehabilitation to assess functional autonomy. FIM efficiency (improvement of FIM score per day of stay length) and FIM effectiveness (proportion of potential improvement achieved) were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty-four (50.5%) of the 107 patients were affected by USN. In these 54 patients, both conventional and nonconventional BIT scores were significantly correlated with FIM scores assessed at discharge from rehabilitation: ρ values were .385 (P=.004) and .396 (P=.003), respectively. After adjustment for 7 potential confounders, including FIM scores before rehabilitation, we found a significant positive association between either conventional or nonconventional BIT scores and FIM scores after rehabilitation (r=.276, P=.047 and r=.296, P=.033, respectively), FIM efficiency (r=.315, P=.022 and r=.307, P=.025, respectively), and FIM effectiveness (r=.371, P=.006 and r=.306, P=.026, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Data support the independent prognostic role of USN severity assessed at admission to inpatient rehabilitation after a right-hemisphere stroke. Models aimed at predicting the functional outcome in stroke survivors may benefit from inclusion of USN severity.
authors.affiliation: Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Presidio Sanitario San Camillo, Strada Santa Margherita 136, Turin, Italy. Medici@h-sancamillo.to.it
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Monaco
authors.forename: Selene
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schintu
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dotta
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barba
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tappero
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gindri
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D020127:Recovery of Function; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D020521:Stroke / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation