title: Perception of stroke symptoms and utilization of emergency medical services.
abstract: METHODS
  Review of hospital records and structured telephone interviews of 100 consecutive stroke patients. Forward stepwise logistic regression was used for the statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy patients (75%) arrived at the hospital 4.5 hours after stroke symptoms onset. The use of EMS did not improve arrival times. Most patients who recognized their symptoms did not use EMS (p < 0.02). Nineteen patients (20%) were initially misdiagnosed. Eighteen of them were first assessed by non-neurologist physicians (p < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our population showed a low level of stroke awareness. The use of EMS did not improve arrival times at the hospital and the non-utilization of the EMS was associated with the recognition of stroke symptoms. There was a concerning rate of misdiagnosis, mostly by non-neurologist medical providers.
authors.affiliation: Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia, Instituto de Investigación Neurológica Raúl Carrea, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Maximiliano A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hawkes
authors.affiliation: Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia, Instituto de Investigación Neurológica Raúl Carrea, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Mauricio F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Farez
authors.affiliation: Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia, Instituto de Investigación Neurológica Raúl Carrea, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Ismael L
authors.initials: IL
authors.lastname: Calandri
authors.affiliation: Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia, Instituto de Investigación Neurológica Raúl Carrea, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Sebastián F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Ameriso
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001118:Argentina; D001364:Awareness; D057210:Delayed Diagnosis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003951:Diagnostic Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004522:Educational Status; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020521:Stroke / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013997:Time Factors