The NIH Stroke Scale Has Limited Utility in Accurate Daily Monitoring of Neurologic Status

The National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) is rapid and reproducible, a seemingly attractive metric for the documentation of clinical progress in patients presenting with ischemic stroke. Many institutions have adopted it into daily clinical practice. Unfortunately, the scale may not adequately capture all forms of functional change. We evaluate its utility as a measure of recovery in patients treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (IV tPA) for ischemic stroke