Administration of thrombolytic agents is useful for treating patients with acute stroke, provided it is administered soon after onset. The Out-of-Hospital NIH Stroke Scale is intended to be a simple method for emergency response personnel to identify patients who may have an acute stroke, so that thrombolytic therapy can be started immediately upon arrival at the health care facility.
A person is positive if he or she has one or more of the following:
(1) presence of facial palsy
(2) difference in the muscle strength between the arms
(3) presence of abnormal speech (slurred speech, inappropriate word usage due to expressive or receptive aphasia, unable to speak)
Interpretation:
• The scale is 100% sensitive for identifying patients with stroke, with an 88% specificity.
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