Validation of the Early Functional Abilities scale: An assessment of four dimensions in early recovery after traumatic brain injury.

Objective: The Early Functional Abilities scale assesses the restoration of brain function after brain injury, based on 4 dimensions. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the validity, objectivity, reliability and measurement precision of the Early Functional Abilities scale by Rasch model item analysis. A secondary objective was to examine the relationship between the Early Functional Abilities scale and the Functional Independence Measurement™, in order to establish the criterion validity of the Early Functional Abilities scale and to compare the sensitivity of measurements using the 2 instruments.

Adult cognitive ability and educational level in relation to concussions in childhood and adolescence: a population study of young men.

Objective: To investigate the relationship of concussion(s) suffered through childhood and adolescence with completed level of school education and cognitive ability in young adulthood.

Methods: Educational level and scores on a test of cognitive ability were obtained for a cohort of 130,298 young men processed by the Danish draft board. Of these, 6146 had, at some age from birth onwards, been briefly admitted to hospital with a main discharge diagnosis of concussion.

Treatment goals for ambulatory blood pressure and plasma lipids after stroke are often not reached.

Introduction: In Danish health care, secondary prevention after stroke is currently handled mainly by general practitioners using office blood pressure (OBP) assessment of hypertension. The aim of this study was to compare the OBP approach to 24-hour assessment by ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitoring. Furthermore, we aimed to record the degree of adherence to recommended therapy goals for blood pressure and plasma lipids.

Occurrence and severity of agitated behavior after severe traumatic brain injury.

Purpose: To investigate the occurrence and severity of agitation in patients after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), to identify predictors of agitation and to study interrater reliability for a translated version of the Agitated Behavior Scale (ABS).

Design: Prospective observational study. From November 1, 2006, through October 2007, 46 consecutive patients with TBI were included in the early rehabilitation phase following neurosurgical intervention.

The association of functional oral intake and pneumonia in patients with severe traumatic brain injury.

Objectives: To investigate the incidence and onset time of pneumonia for patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the early phase of rehabilitation and to identify parameters associated with the risk of pneumonia.

Design: Observational retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Subacute rehabilitation department in a university hospital in Denmark.

Long-term global and regional brain volume changes following severe traumatic brain injury: a longitudinal study with clinical correlates.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in neurodegenerative changes that progress for months, perhaps even years post-injury. However, there is little information on the spatial distribution and the clinical significance of this late atrophy. In 24 patients who had sustained severe TBI we acquired 3D T1-weighted MRIs about 8 weeks and 12 months post-injury.

Functional oral intake and time to reach unrestricted dieting for patients with traumatic brain injury.

Objectives: To investigate the status of functional oral intake for patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and time to return to unrestricted dieting; and to investigate whether severity of brain injury is a predictor for unrestricted dieting.

Design: Observational retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Subacute rehabilitation department, university hospital.

Diffusion tensor imaging during recovery from severe traumatic brain injury and relation to clinical outcome: a longitudinal study.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been proposed as a sensitive biomarker of traumatic white matter injury, which could potentially serve as a tool for prognostic assessment and for studying microstructural changes during recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, there is a lack of longitudinal studies on TBI that follow DTI changes over time and correlate findings with long-term clinical outcome. We performed a prospective longitudinal study of 30 adult patients admitted for subacute rehabilitation following severe traumatic brain injury.

[Nordic accident classification system used in the Danish National Hospital Registration System to register causes of severe traumatic brain injury].

Introduction: The purpose was to illustrate the use of the accident classification system worked out by the Nordic Medico-Statistical Committee (NOMESCO). In particular, registration of causes of severe traumatic brain injury according to the system as part of the Danish National Hospital Registration System was studied.

Materials And Methods: The study comprised 117 patients with very severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) admitted to the Brain Injury Unit of the University Hospital in Hvidovre, Copenhagen, from 1 October 2000 to 30 September 2002.

[Long-term psychosocial consequences of stroke].

We studied psychosocial conditions among three nationally representative groups of long-term surviving stroke patients. These groups were sent two health-related postal questionnaires either 5, 10 or 15 years after they had suffered strokes. Results showed that at discharge they had relatively low to moderate levels of physical sequelae and aphasias.

A Danish national strategy for treatment and rehabilitation after acquired brain injury.

This study describes the establishment of a Danish national strategy for treatment and rehabilitation of acquired brain injury, particularly traumatic brain injury, in 1997. The vision was to create a system of tax-financed continuous treatment, restoration of function, and outpatient rehabilitation. Recommendations and their fulfillment are described.

Symptomatic heterotopic ossification after very severe traumatic brain injury in 114 patients: incidence and risk factors.

The incidence of heterotopic ossification (HO) among patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) varies in the literature from 11 to 73.3%. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of HO among patients with very severe TBI treated in a new established intensive rehabilitation Brain Injury Unit and to list some of the risk-predicting features.

[Subacute intensive rehabilitation after severe traumatic brain injury. Follow-up 6 months after discharge].

Introduction: In September 2000 the Brain Injury Unit at Hvidovre Hospital was established, offering subacute intensive rehabilitation to patients with severe traumatic brain injury. Uptake area: Eastern part of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Outcome 6 months after discharge is presented for patients from the first 2 years, focusing on disability and social factors.

[Epidemiology of non-traumatic brain injury of sudden onset in Denmark 1994-2002].

Unlabelled: The purpose of this study was to illuminate trends in the incidence and duration of hospital courses in Denmark in 1994-2002 for patients with non-traumatic brain injury of sudden onset, due to spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage, revival after cardiac arrest, near-drowning, near-suffocation or electric shock and to compare to corresponding data from a contemporary investigation of head injuries.

Materials And Methods: The national hospital register was searched for hospital courses starting between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 2002, including rehabilitation and corresponding to ICD10 diagnoses covering the above-mentioned causes of non-traumatic brain injuries.

Results And Conclusion: After direct age-standardization to the European Standard population, the incidence of hospital courses after SAH decreased slightly to 12.

[Epidemiology and treatment of head injuries in Denmark 1994-2002, illustrated with hospital statistics].

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to illuminate the trends in the numbers of hospitalized head-injured patients in Denmark from 1994 to 2002 compared to the preceding decade, and to comment on the response to recommendations from the National Board of Health concerning hospital treatment.

Materials And Methods: The National Patient Registry and the national register of causes of death were searched for ICD10 diagnoses corresponding to structural brain injury, selected cranial fracture diagnoses, and concussion as a first or secondary diagnosis.

Results And Conclusion: The most important tendencies were an increasing number of intracranial haemorrhages and a decrease in the numbers of other structural brain injuries, cranial fractures and brain concussions.