Spotlight on Research

With the advent of stroke centres and the increasing use of reperfusion therapies in stroke management, the need to correctly identify strokes in a timely manner is vital in reducing subsequent patient mortality and morbidity.

This highly detailed systematic review sought to establish the superiority, or otherwise, of validated stoke recognition instruments such as: ROSIER (Recognition of Stroke in the Emergency Room), LAPSS (Los Angeles Prehospital Stroke Screen) and FAST (Face Arm Speech Test). The review searched MEDLINE and EMBASE up to 10 August 2015, with no time or study design restrictions, and included abstracts from conference proceedings provided they were published in peer-reviewed journals.

The reviewers, having begun with 5 622 papers, ultimately reviewed 21 publications (18 papers and 3 abstracts) containing seven stroke recognition instruments. Each was assessed for study population, instrument design, sensitivity, specificity, and where possible, negative and positive predictive values. Additional analysis sought to establish bias and additional cofounders.