scholarly journals Accuracy of prehospital ambulance stroke test in terms of diagnosis of patients with acute ischemic stroke: A multi-center study

Author(s):  
Somayeh Karimi ◽  
Farhad Heydari ◽  
Sahar Mirbaha ◽  
Mohamed Elfil ◽  
Alireza Baratloo

Background: Andsberg et al. have recently introduced a novel scoring system entitled “PreHospital Ambulance Stroke Test (PreHAST)”, which helps to early identification of patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) even in prehospital setting. Its validity has not been assessed in a study yet, and the purpose of this study was to assess this scoring system on a larger scale to provide further evidence in this regard. Methods: This was a cross-sectional multi-center accuracy study, in which, sampling was performed prospectively. All patients over 18 years of age admitted to the emergency department (ED) and suspected as AIS cases were included. All required data were recorded in a form consisting of 3 parts: baseline characteristics, neurological examination findings required for calculating PreHAST score, and the ultimate diagnosis made from interpretation of their brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Results: Data from 805 patients (57.5% men) with the mean age of 67.1 ± 13.6 years were analyzed. Of all the patients presenting with suspected AIS, 562 (69.8%) had AIS based on their MRI findings. At the suggested cut-off point (score ≥ 1), PreHAST had a specificity of 46.5% [95% confidence interval (CI): 40.1%-53.0%) and a sensitivity of 93.2% (95%CI: 90.8%-95.2%). Conclusion: According to the findings of our study, at the suggested cut-off point (score ≥ 1), PreHAST had 93.2% sensitivity and 46.5% specificity in detection of patients with AIS, which were somewhat different from those reported in the original study, where 100% sensitivity and 40% specificity were reported for this scoring system.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Atefeh Abdollahi ◽  
Sepideh Aarabi ◽  
Arash Safaie ◽  
Abdorreza Naser Moghadasi ◽  
Mohammad Sadegh Vahedi ◽  
...  

Background: Despite numerous brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) utilization in the emergency department (ED), certainly, imaging alone is not enough, and it is necessary to have a correct interpretation by a physician who has sufficient skills in this regard. Objectives: Here, we decided to investigate the accuracy of interpreting brain MRI of suspected acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients conducted by emergency medicine physicians (EMPs) in comparison with a radiologist and a neurologist. Methods: This diagnostic accuracy study was conducted from April to November 2019 in Tehran, Iran. All attending EMPs of one major educational, medical center, a radiologist, and a neurologist also participated. A set of brain MRI stereotypes related to patients suspected of having a AIS was randomly selected. By reviewing the brain MRI interpretation of EMPs, once in comparison with the radiologist and once in comparison with the neurologist, misinterpretations (presence or absence of findings compatible with the diagnosis of AIS) were extracted. Results: Brain MRI stereotypes of 287 suspected AIS patients were interpreted of these patients, 160 cases (55.7%) were male. The mean age of the study patients was 65.0 ± 14.1 (range of 18 to 98) years. The value of the agreement for diagnosis between EMPs and neurologists was 0.684 (95% CI: 0.580 to 0.787). Considering the neurologist as the gold standard, the accuracy of AIS diagnosis by the EMPs was 0.85% (95% CI: 79.3 to 89.6). The agreement value for diagnosis between EMPs and radiologist was 0.673 (95% CI: 0.553 to 0.794). Considering the radiologist as the gold standard, the accuracy of AIS diagnosis by the EMPs was 86.3% (95% CI: 79.8 to 91.3). The agreement value for diagnosis in these two groups was 0.752 (95% CI: 0.627 to 0.877). Conclusions: The findings of the current study revealed that the accuracy of brain MRI interpretation performed by the EMPs, compared with both neurologist and radiologist was proper.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peyman Saberian ◽  
Hosein Rafiemanesh ◽  
Farhad Heydari ◽  
Sahar Mirbaha ◽  
Somayeh Karimi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Stroke is one of the most common debilitating diseases. Although effective treatment is available, but a golden-time has been defined in this regard. Therefore, prompt action is needed to identify patients with stroke as soon as possible, even in the pre-hospital stage. In recent years, several clinical scales have been introduced for this purpose. We performed the present study to examine the accuracy of 9 clinical scales in terms of stroke diagnosis.Methods: This multi-center diagnostic accuracy study has been conducted during 2019. All patients older than 18 years, presenting to ED, who had undergone brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) due to suspicion of stroke were eligible. All data were gathered in a pre-designed checklist consisting of 3 sections, using the clinical profiles of the patients. The first section of the checklist included baseline characteristics and demographic data. The second part included physical examination findings of 19 items related to the 9 scales. The third part was dedicated to the final diagnosis based on the interpretation of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which was considered the gold standard method for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) diagnosis in the current study.Results: Data of 805 patients suspected to stroke were analyzed. Of all, 463 (57.5%) patients were male. Participants’ age was between 6 and 95 years and their mean age was 66.9 years (SD=13.9). Off all the enrolled patients, 562 patients (69.8%) had acute ischemic stroke. The accuracy of screening tests was between 63.0% and 84.4%. Their sensitivity and specificity were between 50.2% to 95.7% and 46.5% to 92.2%, respectively. Among all the screening tests, RACE had the lowest sensitivity (50.2%) and MedPACS had the highest (95.7%). In addition, PreHAST had the lowest specificity (46.5%) and RACE had the highest (92.2%).Conclusion: Based on the findings of the present study, highly sensitive tests that can be used in this regard are CPSS, FAST and MEDPACS, all of which have about 95% sensitivity. On the other hand, none of the studied tools were desirable (specificity above 95%) in any of the examined cut-offs.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus D. Schirmer ◽  
Sofia Ira Ktena ◽  
Marco J. Nardin ◽  
Kathleen L. Donahue ◽  
Anne-Katrin Giese ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectiveTo determine whether the rich-club organization, essential for information transport in the human connectome, is an important biomarker of functional outcome after acute ischemic stroke (AIS).MethodsConsecutive AIS patients (N=344) with acute brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (<48 hours) were eligible for this study. Each patient underwent a clinical MRI protocol, which included diffusion weighted imaging (DWI). All DWIs were registered to a template on which rich-club regions have been defined. Using manual outlines of stroke lesions, we automatically counted the number of affected rich-club regions and assessed its effect on the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and modified Rankin Scale (mRS; obtained at 90 days post-stroke) scores through ordinal regression.ResultsOf 344 patients (median age 65, inter-quartile range 54-76 years) with a median DWI lesion volume (DWIv) of 3cc, 64% were male. We established that an increase in number of rich-club regions affected by a stroke increases the odds of poor stroke outcome, measured by NIHSS (OR: 1.77, 95%CI 1.41-2.21) and mRS (OR: 1.38, 95%CI 1.11-1.73). Additionally, we demonstrated that the OR exceeds traditional markers, such as DWIv (ORNIHSS 1.08, 95%CI 1.06-1.11; ORmRs 1.05, 95%CI 1.03-1.07) and age (ORNIHSS 1.03, 95%CI 1.01-1.05; ORmRs 1.05, 95%CI 1.03-1.07).ConclusionIn this proof-of-concept study, the number of rich-club nodes affected by a stroke lesion presents a translational biomarker of stroke outcome, which can be readily assessed using standard clinical AIS imaging protocols and considered in functional outcome prediction models beyond traditional factors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seiya Ota ◽  
Eiji Sasaki ◽  
Shizuka Sasaki ◽  
Daisuke Chiba ◽  
Yuka Kimura ◽  
...  

AbstractWe investigated the prevalence of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings and their relationship with knee symptoms in women without radiographic evidence of knee osteoarthritis (KOA). This cross-sectional cohort study included 359 Japanese women without radiographic evidence of KOA (Kellgren‒Lawrence grade < 2). All participants underwent T2-weighted fat-suppressed MRI of their knees. Structural abnormalities (cartilage damage, bone marrow lesions [BMLs], subchondral cysts, bone attrition, osteophytes, meniscal lesions, and synovitis) were scored according to the whole-organ MRI score method. Knee symptoms were evaluated using the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score. Participants were divided into early and non-KOA groups based on early KOA classification criteria. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between MRI abnormalities and knee symptoms. Cartilage damage was the most common abnormality (43.5%). The prevalences of cartilage damage, BMLs, subchondral cysts, bone attrition, meniscal lesions, and synovitis were higher in patients with early KOA than in those without. Synovitis (odds ratio [OR] 2.254, P = 0.002) and meniscal lesions (OR 1.479, P = 0.031) were positively associated with the presence of early KOA. Synovitis was most strongly associated with knee pain and might be a therapeutic target in patients with early KOA.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynnea Myers ◽  
Mai-Lan Ho ◽  
Elodie Cauvet ◽  
Karl Lundin ◽  
Torkel Carlsson ◽  
...  

AbstractWhile previous research has investigated neuroradiological findings in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the entire range of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) has not yet been well-studied using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Considering the overlap among NDDs and simultaneous development of the brain and face, guided by molecular signaling, we examined the relationship of actionable and incidental (non-actionable) MRI findings and NDD diagnoses together with facial morphological variants and genetic copy number variants (CNVs). A cross-sectional study was conducted with a twin cohort 8–36 years of age (57% monozygotic, 40% dizygotic), including 372 subjects (46% with NDDs; 47% female) imaged by MRI, 280 with data for facial morphological variants, and 183 for CNVs. Fifty-one percent of participants had MRI findings. Males had a statistically significantly higher percentage of MRI findings (57.7%) compared with females (43.8%, p = 0.03). Twin zygosity was not statistically significantly correlated with incidence or severity of specific MRI findings. No statistically significant association was found between MRI findings and any NDD diagnosis or facial morphological variants; however, MRI findings were statistically significantly associated with the number of CNVs (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.00–1.44, p = 0.05, adjusted OR for sex 1.24, 95% CI 1.03–1.50, p = 0.02). When combining the presence of MRI findings, facial morphological variants, and CNVs, statistically significant relationships were found with ASD and ADHD diagnoses (p = 0.0006 and p = 0.002, respectively). The results of this study demonstrate that the ability to identify NDDs from combined radiology, morphology, and CNV assessments may be possible. Additionally, twins do not appear to be at increased risk for neuroradiological variants.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1674 ◽  
pp. 36-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rixia Liu ◽  
Xiaomeng Yang ◽  
Shuya Li ◽  
Yong Jiang ◽  
Yilong Wang ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (11) ◽  
pp. 713-717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afnan AlGhamdi ◽  
Muhammad Talal Alrifai ◽  
Abdullah I. Al Hammad ◽  
Fuad Al Mutairi ◽  
Abdulrahman Alswaid ◽  
...  

Propionic acidemia is an inborn error of metabolism that is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner. It is characterized by a deficient propionyl-CoA carboxylase due to mutations in either of its beta or alpha subunits. In the literature, there is a clear association between propionic acidemia and epilepsy. In this cohort, we retrospectively reviewed the data of 14 propionic acidemia patients in Saudi Arabia and compared the findings to those of former studies. Six of the 14 (43%) patients developed epileptic seizure, mainly focal seizures. All patients were responsive to conventional antiepileptic drugs as their seizures are controlled. The predominant electroencephalographic (EEG) findings were diffuse slowing in 43% and multifocal epileptiform discharges in 14% of the patients. In 1 patient, burst suppression pattern was detected, a pattern never before reported in patients with propionic acidemia. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings mainly consisted of signal changes of the basal ganglia (36%), generalized brain atrophy (43%), and delayed myelination (43%).The most common genotype in our series is the homozygous missense mutation in the PCCA gene (c.425G>A; p. Gly142Asp). However, there is no clear genotype–seizure correlation. We conclude that seizure is not an uncommon finding in patients with propionic acidemia and not difficult to control. Additional studies are needed to further elaborate on genotype–seizure correlation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (11) ◽  
pp. 1150-1156 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. F. Variane ◽  
L. M. Cunha ◽  
P. Pinto ◽  
P. Brandao ◽  
R. S. Mascaretti ◽  
...  

Objective To determine the rate of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) use, current practices, and long-term follow-up. Study Design Prospective cross-sectional national survey with 19 questions related to the assessment of hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) and TH practices. An online questionnaire was made available to health care professionals working in neonatal care in Brazil. Results A total of 1,092 professionals replied, of which 681 (62%) reported using TH in their units. Of these, 624 (92%) provided TH practices details: 136 (20%) did not use any neurologic score or amplitude-integrated electroencephalogram (aEEG) to assess encephalopathy and 81(13%) did not answer this question. Any specific training for encephalopathy assessment was provided to only 81/407 (19%) professionals. Infants with mild HIE are cooled according to 184 (29%) of the respondents. Significant variations in practice were noticed concerning time of initiation and cooling methods, site of temperature measurements and monitoring, and access to aEEG, electroencephalogram (EEG), and neurology consultation. Only 19% could perform a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and 31% reported having a well-established follow-up program for these infants. Conclusion TH has been implemented in Brazil but with significant heterogeneity for most aspects of hypothermia practices, which may affect safety or efficacy of the therapy. A step forward toward quality improvement is important.


Author(s):  
Betsi Sumanti ◽  
Hexanto Hexanto ◽  
Widiastuti Widiastuti

   ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ALTERED HS-CRP LEVELS AND  COGNITIVE FUNCTION OF ISCHEMIC STROKE PATIENTSABSTRACTIntroduction: The incidence of cognitive impairment in acute ischemic stroke patients is increasing. The mechanism of the inflammatory effect, such as  elevated hs-CRP level, a  non-specific inflammatory marker  sensitive to chronic inflammation due to hypoperfusion as well other vascular risk, is thought to have an effect on cognitive function.Aims: To determine the relationship of cognitive function changes in acute phase of ischemic stroke with hs-CRP level changes on day 3 and day 7 after onset.Methods: This was a cross sectional study of 31 first-timer ischemic stroke patients who met inclusion and exclusion criteria. The level of hs-CRP was checked on the 3rd day and 7th day after onset, while MoCA-Ina was assessed on the 7th day after onset. Cognitive disturbance was considered if MoCA <26. Analyses was done using SPSS 2.0Results: The average onset of day 3 Hs-CRP concentration was 0.66 (0.12-16.67)mg/dl and the onset of day 7 was 5.455 (0.14-17.34)mg/dl. The mean change of hs-CRP level between 3 day and 7 day after onset was -0,16 (-3.32-4.95). There was a significant correlation between elevated hs-CRP levels on day 3 and day 7 after onset with cognitive function of acute ischemic stroke patients.Discussion: There was a significant correlation between elevated hs-CRP levels on day 3 and day 7 after onset with cognitive function of acute ischemic stroke patients.Keyword: Acute ischemic stroke, hs-CRP, MoCA-Ina scoresABSTRAKPendahuluan: Insidens penurunan fungsi kognitif pada pasien stroke iskemik akut semakin meningkat. Hal ini diduga dipengaruhi oleh mekanisme efek inflamasi, meliputi peningkatan kadar high sensitive-C reactive protein (hs-CRP), salah satu penanda inflamasi non-spesifik yang sangat sensitif pada inflamasi kronis, akibat hipoperfusi maupun karena risiko vaskuler lainnya.Tujuan: Mengetahui hubungan perubahan fungsi kognitif pasien stroke iskemik fase akut dengan perubahan kadar hs-CRP hari ke-3 dan hari ke-7 setelah awitan.Metode: Studi potong lintang terhadap penderita stroke iskemik pertama kali yang memenuhi kriteria inklusi dan eksklusi. Dilakukan pemeriksaan kadar hs-CRP hari ke-3 dan hari ke-7 setelah awitan dan MoCA-Ina pada hari ke-7 setelah awitan. Fungsi kognitif dinyatakan terganggu jika MoCA-Ina <26. Analisis data menggunakan program SPSS 22.0.Hasil: Didapatkan rerata kadar Hs-CRP hari ke-3 setelah awitan adalah 0,66 (0,12-16,67)mg/dl dan hari ke-7 setelah awitan adalah 5,455 (0,14-17,34)mg/dl. Dengan rerata perubahan kadar hs-CRP awitan hari ke-3 dan awitan hari ke-7 adalah -0,16 (-3,32-4,95). Didapatkan hubungan yang bermakna antara perubahan kadar hs-CRP hari ke-3 setelah awitan dan hari ke-7 setelah awitan dengan fungsi kognitif pasien stroke iskemik akut.Kesimpulan: Didapatkan hubungan yang bermakna antara peningkatan kadar hs-CRP pada hari ke-7 dan kadar hari ke-3 dengan fungsi kognitif pasien stroke iskemik akut.Kata kunci: hs-CRP, MoCA-Ina, stroke iskemik akut 


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