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Ischemic Stroke
Original research
Long-term implementation of a prehospital severity scale for EMS triage of acute stroke: a real-world experience
  1. Mouhammad A Jumaa1,2,
  2. Alicia C Castonguay1,
  3. Hisham Salahuddin1,
  4. Julie Shawver2,
  5. Linda Saju1,
  6. Richard Burgess1,
  7. Vieh Kung1,
  8. Diana E Slawski1,
  9. Gretchen Tietjen1,
  10. David Lindstrom3,
  11. Brent Parquette3,
  12. Andrea Korsnack1,
  13. Kimberly Cole4,
  14. Ehad Afreen1,
  15. Kunaal Bafna1,
  16. Syed F Zaidi1,2
  1. 1 Neurology, University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, Ohio, USA
  2. 2 Neurology, Promedica Toledo Hospital, Toledo, Ohio, USA
  3. 3 Lucas County EMS, Toledo, USA
  4. 4 University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, Ohio, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Syed F Zaidi, Neurology, University of Toledo Health Science Campus, Toledo, OH 43606, USA; syed.zaidi2{at}utoledo.edu

Abstract

Background Data on the implementation of prehospital large vessel occlusion (LVO) scales to identify and triage patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) in the field are limited, with the majority of studies occurring outside the USA.

Objective To report our long-term experience of a US countywide emergency medical services (EMS) acute stroke triage protocol using the Rapid Arterial oCclusion Evaluation (RACE) score.

Methods Our prospective database was used to identify all consecutive patients triaged within Lucas County, Ohio by the EMS with (1) a RACE score ≥5, taken directly to an endovascular capable center (ECC) as RACE-alerts (RA) and (2) a RACE score <5, taken to the nearest hospital as stroke-alerts (SA). Baseline demographics, RACE score, time metrics, final diagnosis, treatments, and clinical and angiographic outcomes were captured. The sensitivity and specificity for patients with a RACE score ≥5 with LVO, eligible for mechanical thrombectomy (MT), were calculated.

Results Between July 2015 and June 2018, 492 RA and 1147 SA were triaged within our five-hospital network. Of the RA, 37% had AIS secondary to LVOs. Of the 492 RA and 1147 SA, 125 (25.4%) and 38 (3.3%), respectively, underwent MT (OR=9.9; 95% CI 6.8 to 14.6; p<0.0001). Median times from onset-to-ECC arrival (74 vs 167 min, p=0.03) and dispatch-to-ECC arrival (31 vs 46 min, p=0.0002) were shorter in the RA-MT than in the SA-MT cohort. A RACE cut-off point ≥5 showed a sensitivity and specificity of 0.77 and 0.75 for detection of patients with LVO eligible for MT, respectively.

Conclusions We have demonstrated the long-term feasibility of a countywide EMS-based prehospital triage protocol using the RACE Scale within our hospital network.

  • stroke
  • intervention
  • thrombectomy

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/neurintsurg-2019-014997

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors participated in the study design, collection of data, and/or drafting and editing of the manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement All data are contained in the manuscript.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.