Gait assessment in the initial evaluation of posterior circulation stroke

Posterior circulation stroke (PCS) presents diagnostic challenges due to its diverse clinical presentations. Timely detection is crucial, yet a highly sensitive, non-invasive screening tool for PCS is lacking. This study explores gait assessment as a readily accessible diagnostic tool for ruling out PCS in acutely vertiginous patients.

In this retrospective case-control study, we examined medical records of 311 acutely vertiginous patients from the Get with the Guidelines Database at an academic hospital in New York City. Of these, 40 were diagnosed with PCS and 271 did not have PCS based on imaging and clinical criteria. We used multivariable logistic regression models and ROC curves to evaluate the association between objective gait abnormality (OGA) and PCS.

Objective gait abnormality (OGA) was observed in 38/40 (95 %) posterior circulation stroke (PCS) cases and 57/271 (21 %) controls (adjusted odds ratio 144, 95 %CI 24.4-855, p < 0.0001). In a predictive model, objective gait abnormality (OGA) exhibited excellent discrimination between cases and controls (AUC 0.9599, sensitivity 95.0 %, specificity 75.6 %, positive predictive value 36.5 %, negative predictive value 99.0 %).

Gait assessment emerges as a highly-sensitive screening tool for ruling out posterior circulation stroke (PCS) in acutely vertiginous patients, enabling more efficient triage and patient management. Further prospective research is warranted to validate these findings in larger and more diverse patient populations.