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Detecting Behavioral Deficits in Rats After Traumatic Brain Injury
Published on: January 30, 2018
Difference among frailty assessment tools in predicating postoperative prognosis of elderly patients with mild
Chunhua Ni1, Chen Gu1, Hua Liu2
1Intensive Care Unit, Kunshan Hospital Affiliated to Jiangsu University, Qianjin East Road, China.
Objectives:
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) is quite prevalent in the elderly population, and the authors performed a retrospective analysis regarding the predictive value of frailty assessing tools regarding the prognosis of elderly mTBI patients.
Methods:
All the patients underwent assessment of frailty upon admission using five tools including Frailty Phenotype (FP), FRAIL Scale (FS), Edmonton Frailty Scale (EFS), Groningen Frailty Indicator (GFI), and Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS). The predicting potential of tools was analyzed against the prognosis defined by the extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOSE).
Results:
The incidence of frailty in elderly patients varies widely among the tools. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that only frail conditions defined by FP (p-value = 0.014) and FS (p-value = 0.004) could be employed for predicting unfavorable prognosis defined by GOSE, while frailty defined by CFS (p-value = 0.683), EFS (p-value = 0.301) and GFI (p-value = 0.925) could not. The ROC further showed that FP (AUC = 73.2 %) and FS (AUC = 76.2 %) had moderate power in predicting unfavorable conditions, while CFS (AUC = 46.1 %), EFS (AUC = 55.6 %), and GFI (AUC = 51.5 %) only had low or even no power.
Conclusions:
FP and FS could be used to predict the unfavorable prognosis associated with mTBI in the elderly population.
Insights
The Frailty Phenotype (FP) and FRAIL Scale (FS) can predict poor outcomes in elderly patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Other frailty tools showed limited predictive value for mTBI prognosis.
Area of Science:
- Geriatrics
- Neurology
- Public Health
Background:
- Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) is a significant health concern in the elderly population.
- Assessing frailty is crucial for predicting prognosis in elderly mTBI patients.
- Various frailty assessment tools exist, but their predictive utility for mTBI outcomes requires clarification.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the predictive value of five different frailty assessment tools for the prognosis of elderly patients who have sustained an mTBI.
- To determine which frailty assessment tools are most effective in identifying elderly mTBI patients at risk of unfavorable outcomes.
Main Methods:
- A retrospective analysis was conducted on elderly mTBI patients.
- Frailty was assessed upon admission using five tools: Frailty Phenotype (FP), FRAIL Scale (FS), Edmonton Frailty Scale (EFS), Groningen Frailty Indicator (GFI), and Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS).
- Prognosis was evaluated using the extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOSE), and predictive potential was analyzed via multivariate logistic regression and ROC curves.
Main Results:
- The incidence of frailty varied significantly across the assessment tools.
- Only the Frailty Phenotype (FP) and FRAIL Scale (FS) demonstrated statistically significant predictive value for unfavorable prognosis (p=0.014 and p=0.004, respectively).
- ROC analysis indicated moderate predictive power for FP (AUC=73.2%) and FS (AUC=76.2%), while CFS, EFS, and GFI showed low to no predictive power (AUCs ranging from 46.1% to 55.6%).
Conclusions:
- The Frailty Phenotype (FP) and FRAIL Scale (FS) are valuable tools for predicting unfavorable prognosis in elderly patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).
- Other commonly used frailty assessment tools (CFS, EFS, GFI) demonstrated limited utility in predicting mTBI outcomes in this population.

