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A new interesting article has been published in Acta Neurol Scand. 2019 Aug;140(2):93-99. doi: 10.1111/ane.13107. Epub 2019 May 9. and titled:

Prehospital assessment of suspected stroke and TIA: An observational study.

Authors of this article are:

Hansson PO, Andersson Hagiwara M, Herlitz J, Brink P, Wireklint Sundström B.

A summary of the article is shown below:

BACKGROUND: Symptoms related to stroke diverge and may mimic many other conditions.AIMS: To evaluate clinical findings among patients with a clinical suspicion of stroke in a prehospital setting and find independent predictors of a final diagnosis of stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA).METHODS: An observational multicenter study includes nine emergency hospitals in western Sweden. All patients transported to hospital by ambulance and in whom a suspicion of stroke was raised by the emergency medical service clinician before hospital admission during a four-month period were included.RESULTS: Of 1081 patients, a diagnosis of stroke was confirmed at hospital in 680 patients (63%), while 69 (6%) were diagnosed as TIA and 332 patients (31%) received other final diagnoses. In a multiple logistic regression analysis, factors independently associated with a final diagnosis of stroke or TIA were increasing age, odds ratio (OR) per year: 1.02, P = 0.007, a history of myocardial infarction (OR: 1.77, P = 0.01), facial droop (OR: 2.81, P < 0.0001), arm weakness (OR: 2.61, P < 0.0001), speech disturbance (OR: 1.92, P < 0.0001), and high systolic blood pressure (OR: 1.50, P = 0.02), while low oxygen saturation was significantly associated with other diagnoses (OR: 0.41, P = 0.007). More than half of all patients among patients with both stroke/TIA and other final diagnoses died during the five-year follow-up.CONCLUSIONS: Seven factors including the three symptoms included in the Face Arm Speech Test were significantly associated with a final diagnosis of stroke or TIA in a prehospital assessment of patients with a suspected stroke.© 2019 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Check out the article’s website on Pubmed for more information:

[link-preview url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31009075 forceshot=true]

This article is a good source of information and a good way to become familiar with topics such as: diagnosis;emergency medical services;mortality;stroke.

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