Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2018

Comments

This article has been peer reviewed. It is the authors' final version prior to publication in Neurologist, Volume 23, Issue 3, May 2018, Pages 79-82.

The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1097/NRL.0000000000000157. Copyright © Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

Abstract

Optimizing the time it takes to get a potential stroke patient to imaging is essential in a rapid stroke response. At our hospital, door-to-imaging time is comprised of 2 time periods: the time before a stroke is recognized, followed by the period after the stroke code is called during which the stroke team assesses and brings the patient to the computed tomography scanner. To control for delays due to triage, we isolated the time period after a potential stroke has been recognized, as few studies have examined the biases of stroke code responders. This "code-to-imaging time" (CIT) encompassed the time from stroke code activation to initial imaging, and we hypothesized that perception of stroke severity would affect how quickly stroke code responders act. In consecutively admitted ischemic stroke patients at The Mount Sinai Hospital emergency department, we tested associations between National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores (NIHSS), continuously and at different cutoffs, and CIT using spline regression, t tests for univariate analysis, and multivariable linear regression adjusting for age, sex, and race/ethnicity. In our study population, mean CIT was 26 minutes, and mean presentation NIHSS was 8. In univariate and multivariate analyses comparing CIT between mild and severe strokes, stroke scale scores4.

PubMed ID

29722739

Language

English

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