Clinical Judgment vs Triage Scales for Detecting Large Vessel Occlusions in Suspected Acute Stroke.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Schlemm E
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10498329 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Clinical Judgment vs Triage Scales for Detecting Large Vessel Occlusions in Suspected Acute Stroke.
Schlemm Eckhard E Piepke Marius M Kessner Simon S SS Meyer Lukas L Cheng Bastian B Gerloff Christian C Thomalla Götz G
JAMA network open 20230905 9
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Project description:ImportanceEndovascular therapy (EVT) improves functional outcomes in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) with large vessel occlusion (LVO). Whether implementation of a regional prehospital transport policy for comprehensive stroke center triage increases use of EVT is uncertain.ObjectiveTo evaluate the association of a regional prehospital transport policy that directly triages patients with suspected LVO stroke to the nearest comprehensive stroke center with rates of EVT.Design, setting, and participantsThis retrospective, multicenter preimplementation-postimplementation study used an interrupted time series analysis to compare treatment rates before and after implementation in patients with AIS arriving at 15 primary stroke centers and 8 comprehensive stroke centers in Chicago, Illinois, via emergency medical services (EMS) transport from December 1, 2017, to May 31, 2019 (9 months before and after implementation in September 2018). Data were analyzed from December 1, 2017, to May 31, 2019.InterventionsPrehospital EMS transport policy to triage patients with suspected LVO stroke, using a 3-item stroke scale, to comprehensive stroke centers.Main outcomes and measuresRates of EVT before and after implementation among EMS-transported patients within 6 hours of AIS onset.ResultsAmong 7709 patients with stroke, 663 (mean [SD] age, 68.5 [14.9] years; 342 women [51.6%] and 321 men [48.4%]; and 348 Black individuals [52.5%]) with AIS arrived within 6 hours of stroke onset by EMS transport: 310 of 2603 (11.9%) in the preimplementation period and 353 of 2637 (13.4%) in the postimplementation period. The EVT rate increased overall among all patients with AIS (preimplementation, 4.9% [95% CI, 4.1%-5.8%]; postimplementation, 7.4% [95% CI, 7.5%-8.5%]; P < .001) and among EMS-transported patients with AIS within 6 hours of onset (preimplementation, 4.8% [95% CI, 3.0%-7.8%]; postimplementation, 13.6% [95% CI, 10.4%-17.6%]; P < .001). On interrupted time series analysis among EMS-transported patients, the level change within 1 month of implementation was 7.15% (P = .04) with no slope change before (0.16%; P = .71) or after (0.08%; P = .89), which indicates a step rather than gradual change. No change in time to thrombolysis or rate of thrombolysis was observed (step change, 1.42%; P = .82). There were no differences in EVT rates in patients not arriving by EMS in the 6- to 24-hour window or by interhospital transfer or walk-in, irrespective of time window.Conclusions and relevanceImplementation of a prehospital transport policy for comprehensive stroke center triage in Chicago was associated with a significant, rapid, and sustained increase in EVT rate for patients with AIS without deleterious associations with thrombolysis rates or times.
| S-EPMC8353578 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundWhen patients with acute ischemic stroke present with suspected large vessel occlusion in the catchment area of a primary stroke center (PSC), the benefit of direct transport to a comprehensive stroke center (CSC) has been suggested. Equipoise remains between transport strategies and the best transport strategy is not well established.MethodsWe conducted a national investigator-driven, multicenter, randomized, assessor-blinded clinical trial. Patients eligible for intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) who were suspected for large vessel occlusion were randomized 1:1 to admission to the nearest PSC (prioritizing IVT) or direct CSC admission (prioritizing endovascular therapy). The primary outcome was functional improvement at day 90 for all patients with acute ischemic stroke, measured as shift towards a lower score on the modified Rankin Scale score.ResultsFrom September 2018 to May 2022, we enrolled 171 patients of whom 104 had acute ischemic stroke. The trial was halted before full recruitment. Baseline characteristics were well balanced. Primary analysis of shift in modified Rankin Scale (ordinal logistic regression) revealed an odds ratio for functional improvement at day 90 of 1.42 (95% CI, 0.72-2.82, P=0.31). Onset to groin time for patients with large vessel occlusion was 35 minutes (P=0.007) shorter when patients were transported to a CSC first, whereas onset to needle (IVT) was 30 minutes (P=0.012) shorter when patients were transported to PSC first. IVT was administered in 67% of patients in the PSC group versus 78% in the CSC group and EVT was performed in 53% versus 63% of the patients, respectively.ConclusionsThis trial investigated the benefit of bypassing PSC. We included only IVT-eligible patients presenting <4 hours from onset and with suspected large vessel occlusion. Lack of power prevented the results from showing effect on functional outcome for patients going directly to CSC.RegistrationURL: https://www.Clinicaltrialsgov; Unique identifier: NCT03542188.
| S-EPMC10589426 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundClinical scales to detect large vessel occlusion (LVO) may help to determine the optimal transport destination for patients with suspected acute ischemic stroke (AIS). The clinical benefit associated with improved diagnostic accuracy of these scales has not been quantified.MethodsWe used a previously reported conditional model to estimate the probability of good outcome (modified Rankin scale sore ≤2) for patients with AIS and unknown vessel status occurring in regions with greater proximity to a primary than to a comprehensive stroke center. Optimal rapid arterial occlusion evaluation (RACE) scale cutoff scores were calculated based on time-dependent effect-size estimates from recent randomized controlled trials. Probabilities of good outcome were compared between a triage strategy based on these cutoffs and a strategy based on a hypothetical perfect LVO detection tool with 100% diagnostic accuracy.ResultsIn our model, the additional benefit of a perfect LVO detection tool as compared to optimal transport-time dependent RACE cutoff scores ranges from 0 to 5%. It is largest for patients with medium stroke symptom severity (RACE score 5) and in geographic environments with longer transfer time between the primary and comprehensive stroke center.ConclusionBased on a probabilistic conditional model, the results of our simulation indicate that more accurate prehospital clinical LVO detections scales may be associated with only modest improvements in the expected probability of good outcome for patients with suspected acute ischemic stroke and unknown vessel status.
| S-EPMC5807751 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Advances in endovascular treatment of acute ischaemic stroke from intracranial large vessel occlusions have continued in the past decade. Here, we performed a detailed review of all the new trials and studies that had the highest evidence, the guidelines for mechanical thrombectomy, the selection of the particular population outside the guidelines and endovascular therapeutic strategies for acute ischemic stroke from occluded intracranial arteries.
| S-EPMC8717796 | biostudies-literature
Project description:While mechanical thrombectomy for large-vessel occlusions is now an evidence-based treatment, its efficacy and safety in minor stroke syndromes (NIHSS ≤ 5) is not proved. We identified, in our prospective data base, 378 patients with minor strokes in the anterior circulation; 54 (14.2%) of these had proved large-vessel occlusions. Eight of 54 (14.8%) were immediately treated with mechanical thrombectomy, 6/54 (11.1%) after early neurologic deterioration, and the rest were treated with standard thrombolysis only. Rates of successful recanalization were similar between the 2 mechanical thrombectomy groups (75% versus 100%). Rates of excellent outcome (modified Rankin Scale 0-1) were higher in patients with immediate thrombectomy (75%) compared with patients with delayed thrombectomy (33.3%) and thrombolysis only (55%). No symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage occurred in either group. These descriptive data are encouraging, and further analysis of large registries or even randomized controlled trials in this patient subgroup should be performed.
| S-EPMC7960103 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background Patients with large vessel occlusion stroke (LVOS) need to be rapidly identified and transferred to comprehensive stroke centers. However, current prehospital evaluation and strategies still remain challenging. Methods and Results We retrospectively reviewed our prospectively collected database of patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Based on the items of National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale and medical history that had a strong association with LVOS, we designed the 4-item Stroke Scale (4I-SS) and validated it in multi-centers. The 4I-SS incorporated gaze, level of consciousness, arm weakness, and atrial fibrillation. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to compare the 4I-SS with previously established prehospital prediction scales. Finally, 1630 and 11 440 patients were included in the derivation and validation cohort, respectively. In the validation cohort, Youden Index, area under the curve, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of the 4I-SS≥4 to predict LVOS were 0.494, 0.800, 0.657, 0.837, 0.600, 0.868, and 0.788, respectively, and that of the 4I-SS≥7 to predict basilar artery occlusion were 0.200, 0.669, 0.229, 0.971, 0.066, 0.974, and 0.899, respectively. Youden Index and area under the curve were higher than previously published scales for predicting LVOS. Further analysis showed that for predicting whether cardiogenic embolism was the cause, its accuracy was 0.922 when the 4I-SS score, including atrial fibrillation, was ≥6, and its accuracy of predicting the occluded vessel was intracranial internal carotid artery or M1 segment of the middle cerebral artery when it was ≥7 was 0.590. Conclusions The 4I-SS is an effective and simple tool that can identify LVOS and its cause. Registration URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT03317639.
| S-EPMC8649265 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Swift diagnosis and treatment play a decisive role in the clinical outcome of patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS), and computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems can accelerate the underlying diagnostic processes. Here, we developed an artificial neural network (ANN) which allows automated detection of abnormal vessel findings without any a-priori restrictions and in <2 minutes. Pseudo-prospective external validation was performed in consecutive patients with suspected AIS from 4 different hospitals during a 6-month timeframe and demonstrated high sensitivity (≥87%) and negative predictive value (≥93%). Benchmarking against two CE- and FDA-approved software solutions showed significantly higher performance for our ANN with improvements of 25-45% for sensitivity and 4-11% for NPV (p ≤ 0.003 each). We provide an imaging platform ( https://stroke.neuroAI-HD.org ) for online processing of medical imaging data with the developed ANN, including provisions for data crowdsourcing, which will allow continuous refinements and serve as a blueprint to build robust and generalizable AI algorithms.
| S-EPMC10427649 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background and purposeEndovascular thrombectomy is an evidence-based treatment for large vessel occlusion (LVO) stroke. Commercially available artificial intelligence has been designed to detect the presence of an LVO on computed tomography angiogram (CTA). We compared Viz.ai-LVO (San Francisco, CA, USA) to CTA interpretation by board-certified neuroradiologists (NRs) in a large, integrated stroke network.MethodsFrom January 2021 to December 2021, we compared Viz.ai detection of an internal carotid artery (ICA) or middle cerebral artery first segment (MCA-M1) occlusion to the gold standard of CTA interpretation by board-certified NRs for all code stroke CTAs. On a monthly basis, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated. Trend analyses were conducted to evaluate for any improvement of LVO detection by the software over time.Results3851 patients met study inclusion criteria, of whom 220 (5.7%) had an ICA or MCA-M1 occlusion per NR. Sensitivity and specificity were 78.2% (95% CI 72%-83%) and 97% (95% CI 96%-98%), respectively. PPV was 61% (95% CI 55%-67%), NPV 99% (95% CI 98%-99%), and accuracy was 95.9% (95% CI 95.3%-96.5%). Neither specificity or sensitivity improved over time in the trend analysis.ConclusionsViz.ai-LVO has high specificity and moderately high sensitivity to detect an ICA or proximal MCA occlusion. The software has the potential to streamline code stroke workflows and may be particularly impactful when emergency access to NRs or vascular neurologists is limited.
| S-EPMC9847593 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionPrehospital stroke scales have been proposed to identify stroke patients with a large vessel occlusion to allow direct transport to an intervention centre capable of endovascular treatment (EVT). It is unclear whether these scales are able to detect not only proximal, but also more distal treatable occlusions. Our aim was to assess the sensitivity of prehospital stroke scales for different EVT-eligible occlusion locations in the anterior circulation.Patients and methodsThe MR CLEAN Registry is a prospective, observational study in all centres that perform EVT in the Netherlands. We included adult patients with an anterior circulation stroke treated between March 2014 and November 2017. We used National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores at admission to reconstruct previously published prehospital stroke scales. We compared the sensitivity of each scale for different occlusion locations. Occlusions were assessed with CT angiography by an imaging core laboratory blinded to clinical findings.ResultsWe included 3021 patients for the analysis of 14 scales. All scales had the highest sensitivity to detect internal carotid artery terminus occlusions (ranging from 0.21 to 0.97) and lowest for occlusions of the M2 segment (0.08 to 0.84, p-values < 0.001).Discussion and conclusion: Although prehospital stroke scales are generally sensitive for proximal large vessel occlusions, they are less sensitive to detect more distal occlusions.
| S-EPMC8370085 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ImportanceIschemic stroke with large-vessel occlusion can be treated with alteplase and/or endovascular therapy; however, the administration of each treatment is time sensitive.ObjectiveTo identify the optimal triage and transport strategy: direct to the endovascular center (mothership) or immediate alteplase treatment followed by transfer to the endovascular center (drip and ship), for all patients with suspected large-vessel occlusion stroke.Design setting, and participantsThis was a theoretical, conditional probability modeling study. Existing data from clinical trials of stroke treatment were used for model generation. The study was conducted from February 1, 2017, to March 1, 2018.Main outcomes and measuresThe time-dependent efficacy of alteplase and endovascular therapy and the accuracy of large-vessel occlusion screening tools were modeled to estimate the probability of positive outcome (modified Rankin Scale score, 0-1 at 90 days) for both the drip-and-ship and mothership transport strategies. Based from onset to treatment, the strategy that estimates the greatest probability of excellent outcome is determined in several different scenarios.ResultsThe patient's travel time from both thrombolysis and endovascular therapy centers, speed of treatment, and positive predictive value of the screening tool affect whether the drip-and-ship or mothership strategy estimates best outcomes. With optimal treatment times (door-to-needle time: 30 minutes; door-in-door-out time: 50 minutes; door-to-groin-puncture time: 60 minutes [mothership], 30 minutes [drip and ship]), both options estimate similar outcomes when the centers are 60 minutes or less apart. However, with increasing travel time between the 2 centers (90 or 120 minutes), drip and ship is favored if the patient would have to travel past the thrombolysis center to reach the endovascular therapy center or if the patient would arrive outside the alteplase treatment time window in the mothership scenario. Holding other variables constant, if treatment times are slow at the thrombolysis center (door-to-needle time: 60 minutes; door-in-door-out time: 120 minutes), the area where mothership estimates the best outcomes expands, especially when the 2 centers are close together (60 minutes apart or less). The area where mothership estimates the best outcome also expands as the positive predictive value of the screening tool increases.Conclusions and relevanceThis study suggests that decision making for prehospital transport can be modeled using existing clinical trial data and that these models can be dynamically adapted to changing realities. Based on current median treatment times to realize the full benefit of endovascular therapy on a population level, the study findings suggest that delivery of the treatment should be regionally centralized. The study modeling suggests that transport decision making is context specific and the radius of superiority of the transport strategy changes based on treatment times at both centers, transport times, and the triaging tool used.
| S-EPMC6583214 | biostudies-literature