Validation of the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale-8 to Detect Large Vessel Occlusion in Ischemic Stroke

Abstract

Background Patients with acute ischemic stroke and large vessel occlusion (LVO) may benefit from prehospital identification and transfer to a center offering endovascular therapy. Aims We aimed to assess the accuracy of an existing 8-item stroke scale (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale-8 [NIHSS-8]) for identification of patients with acute stroke with LVO. Methods We retrospectively calculated NIHSS-8 scores in a population of consecutive patients with presumed acute stroke assessed by emergency medical services (EMS). LVO was identified on admission computed tomography angiography. Accuracy to identify LVO was calculated using receiver operating characteristics analysis. We used we..