e-NIHSS: an Expanded National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale Weighted for Anterior and Posterior Circulation Strokes.
BACKGROUND
The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) is the most widespread clinical scale used in patients presenting with acute stroke. The merits of the NIHSS include simplicity, quickness, and agreement between clinicians. The clinical evaluation on posterior circulation stroke remains still a limit of NIHSS.


METHODS
We assessed the application of a new version of NIHSS, the e-NIHSS (expanded NIHSS), adding specific elements in existing items to explore signs/symptoms of a posterior circulation stroke. A total of 22 consecutive patients with suspected vertebrobasilar stroke were compared with 25 patients with anterior circulation stroke using NIHSS and e-NIHSS.


RESULTS
We compared the NIHSS and e-NIHSS scores obtained by the 2 examiners, in patients with posterior circulation infarct (POCI), using the Wilcoxon test. Patients with POCI evaluated with e-NIHSS had an average of 2 points higher than patients evaluated with classical NIHSS. The difference was statistically significant (P < .05), weighted by the new expanded items.


CONCLUSIONS
The NIHSS is a practical scale model, with high reproducibility between trained, different examiners, focused on posterior circulation strokes, with the same total score and number of items of the existing NIHSS. The e-NHISS could improve the sensitivity of NIHSS in posterior circulation stroke and could have an impact on clinical trials, as well as on outcomes. Further studies are needed to investigate a larger number of patients and the correlation between the e-NIHSS score and neuroimaging findings.
Nuovo Ospedale Civile S. Agostino-Estense, AUSL Modena, Department of Neuroscience, Neurology Clinic, Modena, Italy.
Silvia
S
Olivato
Nuovo Ospedale Civile S. Agostino-Estense, AUSL Modena, Department of Neuroscience, Neurology Clinic, Modena, Italy.
Silvia
S
Nizzoli
Nuovo Ospedale Civile S. Agostino-Estense, AUSL Modena, Department of Neuroscience, Neurology Clinic, Modena, Italy.
Milena
M
Cavazzuti
Nuovo Ospedale Civile S. Agostino-Estense, AUSL Modena, Department of Neuroscience, Neurology Clinic, Modena, Italy.
Federica
F
Casoni
Nuovo Ospedale Civile S. Agostino-Estense, AUSL Modena, Department of Neuroscience, Neurology Clinic, Modena, Italy.
Paolo Frigio
PF
Nichelli
Nuovo Ospedale Civile S. Agostino-Estense, AUSL Modena, Department of Neuroscience, Neurology Clinic, Modena, Italy. Electronic address: a.zini@ausl.mo.it.
Andrea
A
Zini
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D020243:Infarction, Anterior Cerebral Artery / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D020762:Infarction, Posterior Cerebral Artery / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015588:Observer Variation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
Stroke management; posterior circulation infarct (POCI); stroke care; stroke scale