Propensity Score Matching Analysis on Risk Factors and Their Diagnostic Value of Frailty in Elderly Patients With Cerebral Infarction.

Objectives: Cerebral infarction is an acute ischemic cerebrovascular disease; elderly patients with cerebral infarction often have frailty syndrome. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the risk factors and their diagnostic value of frailty in elderly patients with cerebral infarction.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, the medical records (from October 2017 to September 2020) of patients with cerebral infarction (n=395) were analyzed. According to different frailty statuses, patients were divided into the health group (n=166) and the prefrailty group (n=229). The diagnostic value of various parameters for the occurrence of pre-frailty was assessed by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the ROC curve (AUC). The risk factors were analyzed by single-factor and multi-factor analyses.

Results: Interleukin-6 (IL-6, P<0.001), C-reactive protein (CRP), prealbumin (PA, P<0.001), albumin (ALB, P<0.001), and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP, P<0.001) had higher diagnostic value for the occurrence of prefrailty in elderly patients with cerebral infarction. Single-factor and multi-factor analysis results revealed that the length of stay (LOS), comorbidity with nervous system diseases, high Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), high National Institute of Health stroke scale score, IL-6, BNP, ALB, PA, and creatine kinase might risk the factors for prefrailty occurrence (P<0.05). After the elimination of interference factors, LOS, high CCI, IL-6, and ALB were confirmed to be key risk factors for the occurrence of prefrailty (P<0.05).

Conclusion: LOS, high CCI, IL-6, and ALB are the underlying risk factors for the occurrence of prefrailty in elderly patients with cerebral infarction, which provides a theoretical basis for clinical disease diagnosis.