PLA2, increased significantly after SCI, may play a key role in mediating neuronal death and oligodendrocyte demyelination following SCI. Blocking PLA2 action may represent a novel repair strategy to reduce tissue damage and increase function after SCI.
Background and Purpose-Dysphagia can lead to pneumonia and subsequent death after acute stroke. However, no prospective study has demonstrated reduced pneumonia prevalence after implementation of a dysphagia screen. Methods-We performed a single-center prospective interrupted time series trial of a quality initiative to improve dysphagia screening. Subjects included all patients with ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke admitted to our institution over 42 months with a 31-month (n=1686) preintervention and an 11-month (n=648) postintervention period. The intervention consisted of a dysphagia protocol with a nurse-administered bedside dysphagia screen and a reflexive rapid clinical swallow evaluation by a speech pathologist. Results-The dysphagia initiative increased the percentage of patients with stroke screened from 39.3% to 74.2% (P<0.001).Furthermore, this initiative coincided with a drop in hospital-acquired pneumonia from 6.5% to 2.8% among patients with stroke (P<0.001). Patients admitted postinitiative had 57% lower odds of pneumonia, after controlling for multiple confounds (odds ratio=0.43; confidence interval, 0.255-0.711; P=0.0011). The best predictors of pneumonia were stroke type (P<0.0001), oral intake status (P<0.0001), dysphagia screening status (P=0.0037), and hospitalization before the beginning of the quality improvement initiative (P=0.0449). Conclusions-A quality improvement initiative using a nurse-administered bedside screen with rapid bedside swallow evaluation by a speech pathologist improves screening compliance and correlates with decreased prevalence of pneumonia among patients with stroke. (Stroke. 2013;44:3154-3160.)Key Words: cerebral hemorrhage ◼ dysphagia ◼ ischemic stroke ◼ pneumonia ◼ quality initiative ◼ screening ◼ subarachnoid hemorrhage
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