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The NIHSS Stroke Scale - Oren Zarif - Nih Stroke Scale

  • Writer: Oren Zarif
    Oren Zarif
  • May 12, 2022
  • 3 min read

The NIHSS is a clinical score developed to describe the severity of a stroke. It is a score that can be used to predict a patient's outcomes. It is quite accurate for predicting the outcome of a stroke, but less so for isolated cortex strokes. Generally, a patient's NIHSS score of 16 or more suggests a high risk of death, while a score of six or less indicates a good chance of recovery. A score of ten or more reduces the probability of a patient's recovery by about 17 percent for every one point increase.

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NIHSS scores were correlated with lesion volumes on MRI in a study of 49 patients. The patients underwent MRI before thrombolysis and completed the NIHSS on day one. Baseline NIHSS scores were associated with a high correlation with diffusion and perfusion weighted imaging lesion volumes, and time to peak delay and arterial occlusion site. The NIHSS was associated with several clinical features that may have predictive value for the outcomes of a stroke.

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The NIHSS has 11 elements. Each element has a corresponding score that ranges from 0 to four. The higher the score, the higher the severity of the impairment. There are also prespecified values for each item in the NIHSS. While the NIHSS is widely used, it is not the only stroke scale to be used in the clinical setting. It is used by medical practitioners to determine the extent of neurological disability in a patient after a stroke.

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The NIHSS was introduced in 1995, and it quickly became the de facto standard for evaluating clinical deficits in stroke trials. Since then, several other scales have appeared, each with similar lengths and scores. A scale must be simple to use while trying to measure complex concepts that neurologists understand, and it must be easy to use by non-neurologists during large clinical trials. If used incorrectly, it may compromise a patient's chance of survival.

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The NIHSS is an objective assessment tool that can be used for stroke patients who have undergone rehabilitation. Federal agencies mandate that a patient's NIHSS score be recorded within 12 hours of their hospitalization. The NIHSS also enables researchers to compare the efficacy of medical treatments. Neurologists use it to convey information about the patient's condition and progress. It is not the primary assessment tool for healthcare providers.

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The NIHSS has high agreement between the scores of neurologists and nurses in clinical trials. The agreement among the two groups was excellent for nine of the thirteen items, and it was only the limb ataxia and dysarthria items that had the lowest agreement. Overall, the NIHSS score was 0.94, which indicates excellent agreement. But, despite its limitations, it can still be used to measure the severity of stroke and to plan post-acute care.

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The NIHSS is widely used and is a useful diagnostic tool. Although the NIHSS is often difficult to read and understand, it does tend to accurately predict the severity of stroke damage. As such, it is important to understand how to read it. It can be difficult for family members to interpret, but it is generally quite accurate and predicts damage quite accurately. So, if you are experiencing a stroke, it's worth learning how to read the NIHSS and the underlying physiology.

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The NIHSS score has been shown to improve outcomes. In a study by Albers, Bates, Clark, Bell, Verro, and Hamilton(2000), patients with an NIHSS score of eight or less had an increased likelihood of improving. Further, a patient's NIHSS score of 10 or more reduced the chances of recovery by 75%, and patients with a baseline score of 10 had a significantly lower chance of recovery.

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The aNIHSS and 24-h NIHSS had similar prognostic accuracies when compared to the baseline NIHSS. The aNIHSS was also superior at predicting good outcomes, while the baseline score was less. The aNIHSS had good agreement with the total NIHSS across six published datasets. These findings suggest that aNIHSS may be more useful for prognosis than the baseline score.

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