Exam

Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke Scale

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Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke Scale

  • Criteria
  • Assign one point for each of the 3 criteria
  1. Facial droop
    1. Patient shows teeth
    2. Abnormal if asymmetric
  2. Arm Drift
    1. Patient holds arms out in front of them, with eyes closed for 10 seconds
    2. Abnormal if one arm unable to be raised or drifts from starting position
  3. Dysarthria
    1. Patient repeats "you can't teach an old dog new tricks"
    2. Abnormal if slurred speach or uses inappropriate words or does not respond verbally
  • Interpretation
  1. Score 1: Correlates with CVA in 72% of cases
  2. Score 3: Correlates with CVA in 85% of cases
  • References
  1. Kothari (1997) Acad Emerg Med 4:986-90 [PubMed]
  2. Kothari (1999) Ann Emerg Med 33:373-8 [PubMed]