Author Response: Prediction of Long-term Cognitive Function After Minor Stroke Using Functional Connectivity

Abstract

We thank the authors for the comment about our study.1 We agree that dependent and independent factors can indicate the cognitive status in the chronic phase after stroke. Further studies about the prediction of long-term cognitive impairment after stroke could combine demographic, clinical, imaging, and biological variables to improve the precision of machine-learning approaches. However, in our study, we showed that education and white matter hyperintensity load—which can be a marker of hypertension and diabetes mellitus type II2—had no effect on the cognitive status at 6 months and 36 months after stroke. Moreover, the inclusion criteria and research protocol were established to limit the variability. Patients included in the study had minor strokes with limited functional and cognitive impairment. Standardized clinical, imaging, and cognitive examinations were performed to limit the variability in our population. Finally, we validated our results on an independent population with similar stroke characteristics and a standardized research protocol.