Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Incidence, Prehospital Evaluation, and Presentation of Ischemic Stroke at a Nonurban Comprehensive Stroke Center

Table 3

Stroke evaluation, management, and outcome.

	2019 (pre-COVID-19)	2020 (COVID-19 era)	value
Presenting location
Residence	27	27
Business	10	4	0.24
Healthcare	19	18
Facility	1	4
Other
Positive EMS stroke scale	33/57 (57.9%)	19/51 (37.2%)	0.05
NIHSS on admission (median, range)	4 (0-25)	3 (0-24)	0.59
IV thrombolytic in ED	5/22 (22.7%)	4/21 (19.0%)	0.99
Door to needle (minutes)^†	40.8	51.8	0.52
Stroke diagnosis confirmed	22/57	21/51	0.84
Stroke type
Ischemic	15	10
TIA	3	6	0.20
Hemorrhagic	4	5
NIHSS at discharge (median, range)	3 (0-36)	1 (0-30)	0.43
Discharge disposition
Home/rehab	44	35	0.39
Other	13	16

EMS: Emergency Medical Services; NIHSS: National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale; IV: intravenous; ED: emergency department; TIA: transient ischemic attack. ^†Reported only for those patients who received IV thrombolytics. Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables. Chi-square test for each variable within the EMS Stroke Scale. Mann–Whitney test for nonparametric ordinal data (i.e., NIHSS).