Background: The aim of the study was to determine the role of the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) in the prediction of functional status at the end of neurological early rehabilitative treatment.Methods: Patients consecutively admitted to intensive or intermediate care units of a neurological rehabilitation center were enrolled in the study. Consciousness and functional status were assessed with the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) and the Early Rehabilitation Barthel Index (ERBI), respectively. Both assessments were carried out weekly within the first month and at the end of early rehabilitation. Patient and clinical data were entered into a binary logistic regression model to predict functional status at discharge.Results: 327 patients (112 females, 215 males) with a median age of 63 years (IQR = 53–75) and a median disease duration of 18 days (IQR = 12–28) were included. Most patients suffered from stroke (59 %), followed by traumatic brain injury (31 %), and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (10 %). Upon admission, 12 % were diagnosed as comatose, 31 % as unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS), 35 % as minimally conscious state (MCS) and 22 % already emerged from MCS (eMCS). Of all patients undergoing complete early rehabilitative treatment (n = 180), 72 % showed improvements in level of consciousness (LOC). In this group, age, initial CRS-R score and gains in CRS-R score after four weeks independently predicted functional outcome at discharge.Conclusions: The study confirms the relevance of the CRS-R score for functional outcome prediction. High CRS-R scores and young age facilitate functional improvements and increase the probability to continue treatment in subsequent rehabilitation phases. Moreover, results indicate that recovery might occur over a period of time that extends beyond acute care.

Passive listening to music is associated with several psychological and physical benefits in both, healthy and diseased populations. In this fMRI study, we examined whether preferred music has effects on the functional connectivity within resting-state networks related to consciousness. Thirteen patients in unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) and 18 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled. Both groups were exposed to different auditory stimulation (scanner noise, preferred music, and aversive auditory stimulation). Functional connectivity was analyzed using a seed-based approach. In HC, no differences were found between the three conditions, indicating that their networks are already working at high level. UWS patients showed impaired functional connectivity within all resting-state networks. In addition, functional connectivity of the auditory network was modulated by preferred music and aversive auditory stimulation. Hence, both conditions have the potential to modulate brain activity of UWS patients.

Paroxysmal Sympathetic Hyperactivity (PSH) is a frequently observed condition among critically ill patients on intensive care units. According to different studies, PSH is associated with worse recovery and increased mortality in acute-care facilities. In this monocentric, retrospective case-control study, we investigated whether this association also applies to post-acute neurological early rehabilitation. The study included n = 387 patients, admitted to an intensive care or intermediate care unit within 1 year (2016). Among these, 97 patients showed clinical signs of PSH. For each patient with PSH, a patient without PSH was identified, controlling for age, gender, functional and respiratory status upon admission. However, for 25 patients with PSH, there was no suitable control patient fulfilling all defined matching criteria. Primary outcome was type of discharge, dichotomized into favorable (follow-up rehabilitation) and unfavorable outcome (all others). Secondary outcome measures were functional and respiratory status, number of secondary diagnoses, duration of treatment interruptions and length of stay at discharge. About 25% of neurological early rehabilitation patients showed clinical signs of PSH. A young age (OR = 0.94; CI = 0.91–0.97) and less severe PSH symptoms (OR = 0.79; CI = 0.69–0.90) were independent predictors of a favorable outcome. In addition, severity of PSH symptoms was associated with weaning duration, while the occurrence of PSH symptoms alone had no influence on most secondary outcome variables. The treatment on intermediate care units proved to be longer for patients with PSH symptoms, only. Patients with PSH represent a large group of neurological early rehabilitation patients. Overall, we did not find PSH-related differences in most of the examined outcome measures. However, severe PSH symptoms seem to be associated with poorer outcome and longer treatment on intermediate care units, in order to prevent possible complications.

The present study intended to analyze the outcome of patients with severe brain injury one-year after discharge from early rehabilitation. Early neurological rehabilitation patients admitted to intensive or intermediate care units and discharged between June 2018 and May 2020 were screened for eligibility. The level of consciousness was evaluated using the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) upon admission and at discharge. At one-year follow-up, the outcome was assessed with the Glasgow Outcome Scale-extended (GOSE). Demographical and clinical data collected during inpatient rehabilitation were used to predict the outcome 1 year after discharge. Two hundred sixty-four patients (174 males, 90 females) with a median age of 62 years (IQR = 51–75) and a median duration of their disease of 18 days (IQR = 12–28) were included in the study. At follow-up, the mortality rate was 27% (n = 71). Age and discharge CRS-R total score were independent predictors in a Cox proportional hazards model with death (yes/no) as the dependent variable. According to the GOSE interviews, most patients were either dead (n = 71; 27%), in a vegetative state (n = 28; 11%) or had a severe disability (n = 124; 47%), whereas only a few patients showed a moderate disability (n = 18; 7%) or a good recovery (n = 23; 9%) 1 year after discharge. Age, non-traumatic etiology, discharge CRS-R total score and length of stay independently predicted whether the outcome was good or poor at follow-up. Age was an important predictor for outcome at one-year follow-up, which might be due to altered brain plasticity and more comorbidities in elderly subjects. In addition, the present study demonstrated that the CRS-R total score at discharge might be more important for the prediction of one-year outcome than the initial assessment upon admission.

Background: A reliable assessment of the functional abilities of patients after severe brain damage is crucial for valid prognostication and treatment decisions, but most clinical scales are of limited use among this specific group of patients. Aim: The present study investigates the usefulness of the Early Functional Ability (EFA) scale, which determines the functional abilities of severely impaired patients. Methods: Critically ill patients consecutively admitted to early neurological rehabilitation were screened for eligibility. We assessed the correlation between the EFA scale and (i) the Early Rehabilitation Barthel Index (ERBI), and (ii) the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R). The 1-year outcome on the Glasgow Outcome Scale-extended (GOSE) was used to examine the predictive validity. Demographical and medical variables were entered into univariate and multivariate binary regression models to identify independent predictors of 1-year outcome. Results: Two hundred fifty-seven patients (168 men) with a median age of 62 years (IQR = 51–75) were enrolled. The correlation of the EFA scale with the CRS-R was high but low with the ERBI upon admission. Multivariate regression analysis yielded the vegetative subscale of the EFA scale as the only independent predictor for the 1-year outcome of patients admitted to early neurological rehabilitation. Conclusions: This study shows a high correlation of the EFA scale with the CRS-R but a weak correlation with the ERBI in patients with low functional abilities. With improving patient abilities, these correlations were partly reversed. Thus, the EFA scale is a useful tool to assess the functional abilities and the prognosis of critically ill patients adequately and may be more feasible than other scales.

Background: About 6.2 million adults in Germany cannot read and write properly despite attending school for several years. They are considered to be functional illiterates (FI). Since the ability to read and write is crucial for being employed and socially accepted, we developed a special literacy training to overcome these deficits.Methods: In this study, we investigate training-related changes in intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) at rest in a group of 20 FI and 20 adult normal readers using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI). We used independent component analysis (ICA) to define different networks.Results: Before training, the between group analysis showed increased iFC in FI in a left-fronto-parietal network (LFPN; anterior insula, medial frontal cortex, lateral and frontal parietal regions) and in the Basal Ganglia network (BGN: thalamus, caudate, putamen, pallidum, amygdala, supplementary motor cortex and cingulate gyrus). Furthermore, the Visual Network-1 (VN1; temporal occipital fusiform gyrus, lateral occipital cortex, occipital pole, lingual gyrus, thalamus) showed decreased iFC in FI. After training the FI group showed reversal of the “hyperconnectivity” in middle frontal gyrus and in the frontal orbital cortex and between supramarginal gyrus and the BGN. Furthermore, functional connectivity increased in FI VN1 (lateral occipital cortex, insular cortex). These changes in connectivity correlated with gains in reading speed and spelling accuracy.Conclusions: These findings show that poor reading and writing abilities are associated with abnormalities in iFC in several brain areas subserving cognitive processes important for reading. Intensive literacy training induces changes in the functional connectivity between and within neural networks important for literacy skills.