Background and Purpose: Conditions associated with frailty are common in people experiencing stroke and may explain differences in outcomes. We assessed associations between a published, generic frailty risk score, derived from administrative data, and patient outcomes following stroke/transient ischemic attack; and its accuracy for stroke in predicting mortality compared with other measures of clinical status using coded data. Methods: Patient-level data from the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry (2009–2013) were linked with hospital admissions data. We used International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision codes with a 5-year look-back period to calculate the Hospital Frailty Risk Score (termed Frailty Score hereafter) and summarized results into 4 groups: no-risk (0), low-risk (1–5), intermediate-risk (5–15), and high-risk (>15). Multilevel models, accounting for hospital clustering, were used to assess associations between the Frailty Score and outcomes, including mortality (Cox regression) and readmissions up to 90 days, prolonged acute length of stay (>20 days; logistic regression), and health-related quality of life at 90 to 180 days (quantile regression). The performance of the Frailty Score was then compared with the Charlson and Elixhauser Indices using multiple tests (eg, C statistics) for predicting 30-day mortality. Models were adjusted for covariates including sociodemographics and stroke-related factors. Results: Among 15 468 adult patients, 15% died ≤90 days. The frailty scores were 9% no risk; 23% low, 45% intermediate, and 22% high. A 1-point increase in frailty (continuous variable) was associated with greater length of stay (OR adjusted , 1.05 [95% CI, 1.04 to 1.06), 90-day mortality (HR adjusted , 1.04 [95% CI, 1.03 to 1.05]), readmissions (OR adjusted , 1.02 [95% CI, 1.02 to 1.03]; and worse health-related quality of life (median difference, −0.010 [95% CI −0.012 to −0.010]). Adjusting for the Frailty Score provided a slightly better explanation of 30-day mortality (eg, larger C statistics) compared with other indices. Conclusions: Greater frailty was associated with worse outcomes following stroke/transient ischemic attack. The Frailty Score provides equivalent precision compared with the Charlson and Elixhauser indices for assessing risk-adjusted outcomes following stroke/transient ischemic attack.
The outbreak of COVID-19 from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread all over the world with tremendous morbidity and mortality in the elderly. In-hospital treatment addresses the multifaceted nature of the illness including viral replication, cytokine storm, and endothelial injury with thrombosis. We identified nine reports of early treatment outcomes in COVID-19 nursing home patients. Multi-drug therapy including hydroxychloroquine with one or more anti-infectives, corticosteroids, and antithrombotic agents can be extended to seniors in the nursing home setting without hospitalization. Data from nine studies found multidrug regimens relying on the use of hydroxychloroquine as well as other agents including doxycycline were associated with a statistically significant and >60% reductions in mortality. Going forward, we theorize and based on the evidence, that early empiric treatment for the elderly with COVID-19 in the nursing home setting (or similar congregated settings with elderly residents/patients) has a genuine probability of success and acceptable safety. This group remains our highest at-risk group and warrants acute treatment focus that will prevent the development and/or worsening of problems associated with COVID-19, most particularly isolation, hospitalization, and death. In fact, with the rapidity and severity of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in nursing homes, in-center treatment of patients with acute COVID-19 is possibly the most rational and importantly feasible strategy to reduce the risks of hospitalization and death. If the approach remains ‘wait-and-see’ and elderly high-risk patients in such congregated nursing room type settings are allowed to worsen with no early treatment, they may be too sick and fragile to benefit from in-hospital therapeutics and are at risk for pulmonary failure, life-ending micro-thrombi of the lungs, kidneys etc. We put forth the notion that the most important factor in this regard, is making available early therapeutic intervention as described here. These drugs include and under supervision by skilled doctors, combination/sequenced ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, colchicine, azithromycin, doxycycline, bromhexine hydrochloride, and favipiravir (outside the US), along with inhaled steroids such as budesonide and oral steroids including dexamethasone and prednisone, and anti-thrombotic anti-clotting drugs such as heparin). As the clinical trials data on treatments for COVID-19 mature, this early treatment therapeutic option deserves serious, urgent, and sober consideration by the medical establishment and respective decision-makers.
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