Background Stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP) is an important cause of poststroke morbidity and mortality. Several clinical risk scores predict the risk of SAP. In this study, we used the A2DS2 score (age, atrial fibrillation, dysphagia, sex, and stroke severity) to assess the risk of SAP in patients admitted with acute stroke.
Methods A high (5–10) and a low (0–4) A2DS2 score was assigned to patients with acute stroke admitted to the neurology ward. Univariate binary logistic regression analysis was performed to find the strength of association of SAP and A2DS2 score.
Results There were 250 patients with acute stroke of which 46 developed SAP. Forty-four patients developed SAP in high score as against 2 in low-score group (odds ratio [OR] = 0.03, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.01–0.15, p = 0.0001). A2DS2 score >5 had sensitivity of 82.6% and specificity of 65.1% to predict SAP. The mean A2DS2 score in patients with pneumonia was 7.02 ± 1.40 compared to 4.75 ± 1.92 in patients without pneumonia (p = 0.0001).
Conclusions A2DS2 score has a high sensitivity of 82% in predicting the risk of SAP and is a useful tool to monitor patients after acute stroke. A2DS2 score can help in timely detection and prevention of SAP and reduction in caregiver’s burden.
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