Optimizing in-hospital triage for large vessel occlusion using a novel clinical scale (GAI₂AA)

To identify a proximal anterior circulation occlusion for effectively administering immediate mechanical thrombectomy by developing a novel, simple diagnostic scale to predict the occlusion, to compare its validity with available scales, and to assess its utility.

To develop a novel clinical scale, we retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 429 patients with acute ischemic stroke from a single center. The novel scale GAI₂AA was applied to a prospective cohort of 259 patients from 3 stroke centers for external validation. The utility of the scale as an in-hospital triage was compared for the temporal factors of 158 patients with the occlusion.

In a scale-developmental phase, those with a proximal anterior circulation occlusion had significantly more frequent signs of hemispheric symptoms, including gaze palsy, aphasia, inattention, arm paresis, and atrial fibrillation. The GAI₂AA scale was developed using consolidated hemispheric symptoms and was scored as follows: score = 2, arm paresis score = 1, and atrial fibrillation score = 1. A cutoff value ≥3 was optimal for the correlation between sensitivity (88%) and specificity (81%), with a C statistic of 0.90 (95% confidence interval 0.87-0.93). External validation indicated that discrimination was significantly better than or not different from that of available complex scales. Door-to-puncture time was significantly reduced (91 [82-111] vs 52 [32-75] minutes, p < 0.001).

The GAI₂AA scale showed high sensitivity and specificity when an optimal cutoff score was used and was useful as an in-hospital triage tool.