Background: The prevention of pneumonia is critical for patients with acute ischaemic stroke (AIS). The six subscales in the Braden Scale seem to be related to the occurrence of pneumonia. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of using the Braden Scale to predict the occurrence of pneumonia after AIS.
Methods: We studied a series of consecutive patients with AIS who were admitted to the hospital. The cohort was subdivided into pneumonia and no pneumonia groups. The scores on the Braden Scale, demographic characteristics and clinical characteristics were obtained and analysed by statistical comparisons between the two groups. We investigated the predictive validity of the Braden Scale by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.
Results: A total of 414 patients with AIS were included in this study. Of those 414 patients, 57 (13.8%) patients fulfilled the criteria for post-stroke pneumonia. There were significant differences in age and histories of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), dysphagia and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score between the two groups, and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score in the pneumonia group was significantly higher than that in the no pneumonia group (P < 0.01). The mean score on the Braden Scale in the pneumonia group was significantly lower than that in the no pneumonia group (P < 0.01). The six subscale scores on the Braden Scale were all significantly different between the two groups. The area under the curve (AUC) for the Braden Scale for the prediction of pneumonia after AIS was 0.883 (95% CI = 0.828-0.937). With 18 points as the cutoff point, the sensitivity was 83.2%, and the specificity was 84.2%.
Conclusion: The Braden Scale with 18 points as the cutoff point is likely a valid clinical grading scale for predicting pneumonia after AIS at presentation. Further studies on the association of the Braden Scale score with stroke outcomes are needed.
Keywords: Acute ischaemic stroke; Pneumonia; The Braden scale.