Stroke survivors improve in rehab at equal rates, regardless of whether or not they are cognitively impaired, researchers report.


The level of improvement was linked to the severity of the patients' overall post-stroke disability but not to the level of pre-rehabilitation cognitive impairment, researchers reported at the annual meeting of the American Neurological Association.


"At least half of the patients had a cognitive impairment when they entered rehabilitation," principal investigator Larry Goldstein, M.D., said in an interview. Dr. Goldstein is a professor of neurology and director of the Center for Cerebrovascular Diseases at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.


"We were looking at whether the initial cognitive impairment predicted or was associated with how they improved in terms of their general neurological impairment," Dr. Goldstein said. "It turned out that, at least in this population, it didn't really matter. The rate of improvement was similar, regardless of whether they had a cognitive impairment at baseline or not."{CLICK FOR MORE}- CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today