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Updated: Mar 11, 2026

Setting Up a Stroke Team Algorithm and Conducting Simulation-based Training in the Emergency Department - A Practical Guide
Published on: January 15, 2017
Perception of stroke symptoms and utilization of emergency medical services
Maximiliano A Hawkes1, Mauricio F Farez1, Ismael L Calandri1
1Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia, Instituto de Investigación Neurológica Raúl Carrea, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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.
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