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BE-FAST Stroke Screening Tool

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BE-FAST Stroke Screening Tool, Balance-Eyes-Face-Arm-Speech-Time Stroke Screen

  • See Also
  1. Ischemic Stroke
  2. Hemorrhagic Stroke
  • Criteria
  • BE-FAST Mnemonic
  1. Balance
    1. Sudden balance loss
  2. Eyes
    1. Vision Loss in one or both eyes
  3. Face
    1. Facial asymmetry (e.g. unilateral facial droop)
  4. Arms
    1. Arm or leg weakness
  5. Speech
    1. Slurred speech, difficulty speaking or speech appears confused
  6. Terrible Headache
    1. Thunderclap Headache (worst Headache of life)
  • Interpretation
  1. Any acute, positive results warrants emergent stroke evaluation
  • Efficacy
  1. High Test Sensitivity for acute CVA
  • References
  1. Aroor (2017) Stroke 48(2):479-81 +PMID: 28082668 [PubMed]
  2. Chen (2022) Front Neurol 12:765069 +PMID: 35153975 [PubMed]
  3. El Ammar (2020) J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis 29(7):104821 +PMID: 32312632 [PubMed]
  4. Jay (2024) Emerg Med Australas 36(3):413-20 +PMID: 38168903 [PubMed]