A Useful New Coma Scale in Acute Stroke Patients: Four Score

Abstract

Assessment of the severity of unconsciousness in patients with impaired consciousness, prediction of mortality and prognosis are currently the most studied subjects in intensive care. The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of the Full Outline of UnResponsiveness (FOUR) score in intensive care unit patients with stroke and the associations of FOUR score with the clinical outcome and with other coma scales (Glasgow [GCS] and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II). One hundred acute stroke patients (44 male, 56 female), who were followed in a neurology intensive care unit, were included in this prospective study. The mean age of the patients was 70.49±12.42 years. Lesion types were determined as haemorrhagic in 30 and ischaemic in 70 patients. FOUR scores on the day of admission and the first, third and 10th days of patients who died within 15 days were lower when compared to scores of patients who survived (P=0.005, P=0.000, P=0.000 and P=0.000 respectively). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed significant trending with both FOUR score and GCS for prognosis; the area under curve ranged from 0.675 (95% confidence interval 0.565 to 0.786) when measurements had been made on day 3 to 0.922 (95% confidence interval 0.867 to 0.977) and 0.981 (95% confidence interval 0.947 to 1.015) for day 10. We suggest that FOUR score is a useful scale for evaluation of acute stroke patients in the intensive care unit as a homogeneous group, with respect to the outcome estimation.