Addition of sodium criterion to SOAR stroke score

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Clinical Medicine
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability.
• Accurate prognostic scores are crucial for patient management.
• The SOAR score is used to predict stroke outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the added value of serum sodium levels in the SOAR stroke score.
• To assess the prediction of inpatient and 7-day mortality using the SOAR score with and without sodium levels.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Stroke & TIA register (2003-2015).
• Multivariate models were used to assess the association between admission sodium levels and mortality.
• Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves and Area Under the Curve (AUC) values were used to compare the prognostic ability of SOAR and SOAR-Na scores.

Main Results:

• Hypernatremia was associated with inpatient mortality, while hyponatremia was linked to 7-day mortality.
• Both SOAR and SOAR-Na scores demonstrated good predictive performance for inpatient and 7-day mortality.
• The SOAR-Na score showed slightly better performance than the SOAR score, but the difference was not substantial.

Conclusions:

• The SOAR-Na score offers minimal improvement over the SOAR score for predicting mortality in stroke patients.
• Further investigation is warranted for the utility of SOAR-Na in patients with chronic kidney disease and dysglycaemias.