A simple risk assessment test is a good predictor of the likelihood of a stroke, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco examined the records of 907 patients, with a median age of 58, who had come to an emergency room complaining of dizziness.
Dizziness is a reliable but not infallible signal of an impending stroke.
In retrospectively analyzing the patients’ data, the researchers used the ABCD2 assessment tool, which takes into account a patient’s age, blood pressure and the duration of the dizziness attack.
They found that in the group of patients with a low test score, only 1 percent later had strokes. But in other groups of patients, the research revealed that medium and high scores predicted strokes with an accuracy rate of 6.8 percent in medium test scores and 27 percent with high test scores. With accurate predictions, emergency room physicians can decide on the appropriate treatment.
Researchers said the results indicated that the ABCD2 test would be a useful tool in analyzing the possibility of future strokes.
