MULTIFACTORIAL ANALYSIS OF STROKE REHABILITATION OUTCOMES: A RETROGRADE STUDY. Jun Chen1; Hao Liu2; Zebin Li1; Myles Quiben*2 1. Rehabilitation Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China; 2. Department of Physical Therapy, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR; 3. Rehabilitation Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China; 4. Physical Therapy, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR PURPOSE: To compare the completion of motor recovery of the upper and lower extremities, and to measure the effects of post-stroke time, age, stroke subtype, side of hemi-paralysis/paresis, and gender to the rehabilitation outcome of stroke. BACKGROUNDS/SIGNIFICANCE: Upper/lower extremity, post-stroke time, age, stroke subtype, side of hemi-paralysis/paresis, and gender are important factors in influencing the rehabilitation outcome of patients who have suffered from a stroke. SUBJECTS: Data were collected from 114 patients who were with hemiparalysis/hemiparesis after stroke and who were treated with neurodevelopmental treatment from June 1999 to June 2002 in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The rehabilitation outcomes of these patients were measured with the Stroke Rehabilitation Assessment of Movement (STREAM). The completion of functional recovery was measured with the difference of the STREAM scores between admission and discharge. The quickness of functional recovery was measured using the STREAM efficiency (the completion of functional recovery /total treatment days). ANALYSES: All data were analyzed with the statistic software SPSS 10.0. Data for individual upper and lower extremities (UE and LE) were processed via a paired-sample t-test; while data for all other factors were processed with the one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between before- and after-treatment for both upper and lower extremities. The average score difference for the LE was higher than that for the UE (p < 0.05); the average efficiency for the LE was higher than that for the UE (p < 0.05). The treatment for the early post-stroke time (< 30 days) demonstrated a better rehabilitation outcome (p < 0.01). The young group showed more improved scores and better treatment efficiency than the old group (p < 0.05). The average STREAM score difference between at the admission and at the discharge in the patients who suffered hemorrhagic stroke is higher than in the patients who suffered infarction stroke (p < 0.01). No significant differences were found in gender and in the sides of paresis/paralysis (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The paralytic/paretic lower extremity has more complete and quicker recovery than the ipsilateral upper extremity. The treatment to the hemorrhagic group, to the young patients, and in the early post-stroke time (≤30 days) demonstrated a better rehabilitation outcome. The gender and the side of paresis/paralyses seem to have no significant effect in the functional recovery. Further study will be needed with a greater patient population using stratified samples based on these factors mentioned above. FUNDING SOURCE: No KEYWORDS: efficiency, hemiplegia, stroke rehabilitation assessmnet of movement Copyright 2009 by the American Physical Therapy Association. Requests for reprints should be directed to the corresponding author of the article. Educators, students, and other academic customers may receive permission to reprint copyrighted material from Physical Therapy (ISSN 1538-6724) by contacting the Copyright Clearance Center Inc, 222 Rosewood Dr, Danvers, MA 01923. Other types of customers who want permission to reprint should contact the APTA Editorial Office, Attn: Physical Therapy.