[NIH stroke scale and its adaptation to Spanish]

In recent years, the NIH stroke scale (National Institute of Health Stroke Scale, NIHSS) has become the most popular used scale to assess the initial and final neurological status of stroke patients who receive experimental drugs. One of the problems with this scale in our country is the language question, making mandatory to adapt it into Spanish.

To obtain a Spanish version of the NIHSS and verify that it has the same advantages and utilities as the original version.

A Spanish translation of the original version of NIHSS was obtained. The final Spanish version for the different items and the instructions to carry out each one of the items were decided by consensus by the neurovascular unit team. The word list and sentences and the drawings of objects and that used to assess visual extinction were obtained from the Boston aphasia test (adapted previously to our language). Once adapted to the Spanish version, the NIHSS, scores obtained during the acute stroke phase were correlated with the cerebral infarct volumes and with the location of the arterial occlusion.

As predictable, there is a good correlation between the neurological situation of the patient (NIHSS) and the presence of middle cerebral artery occlusion assessed by Transcranial Doppler. Doppler situation at baseline, 12, 24 and 48 hours was significantly related (p = 0.001) with the NIHSS at any time. There is a good correlation between the NIHSS score and cerebral infarct volumes measured by computed tomography (n = 72; r = 0.794; p < 0.0001) and by magnetic resonance diffusion- 192 weighted image (n = 38; r = 0.674; p < 0.001).

This adaptation of the NIH stroke scale to Spanish will allow wider availability and routine use in the stroke units.