title: The Relationship between Ischemic Stroke Patients with and without Retroflex Tongue: A Retrospective Study.
abstract: Background. Patients suffering from stroke exhibit different levels of capability in retroflex tongues, in our clinical observation. This study aims to derive the association of tongue retroflexibility with the degree of severity for stroke patients.Methods. All ischemic stroke patients were collected from August 2010 to July 2013 in the Stroke Center, Changhua Christian Hospital, Taiwan. All participants underwent medical history collection and clinical examination, including tongue images captured by ATDS. Statistical analysis was performed to compare the differences of ischemic stroke patients with and without retroflex tongue.Result. Among the total of 308 cases collected, 123 patients cannot retroflex their tongues, that is, the non-RT group. The length of stay in the non-RT group, 32.0 ± 21.5, was longer than those of the RT counterparts, 25.9 ± 14.4 (pvalue: 0.007). The NIHSS on admission, 14.1 ± 7.8 versus 8.9 ± 5.2, was higher and the Barthel Index upon admission, 18.6 ± 20.7 and 35.0 ± 24.2, was lower for the non-RT patients than that of the RT counterparts. Also, the non-RT patients account for 60.2% and 75.6% for Barthel Index ≤ 17 and NIHSS ≥ 9, respectively.Conclusion. The stroke patients in non-RT group showed significantly poor prognosis and were more serious in the degree of severity and level of autonomy than RT group, indicating that the ability to maneuver tongue retroflex can serve as a simple, reliable, and noninvasive means for the prognosis of ischemic stroke patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yung-Sheng
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Stroke Center and Department of Neurology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Mu-Chien
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Po-Chi
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1948-5450
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Liang
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Healthcare Administration and Medical Informatics, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan; Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan.
authors.forename: John Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Statistics and Information Science, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Lun-Chien
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6106-2983
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Lo