The Boston Acute Stroke Imaging Scale: ready for use in clinical practice?

The predictive value of the Boston Acute Stroke Imaging Scale (BASIS) in acute ischemic stroke patients among Chinese population

Objective

Evaluate the predictive value of Boston Acute Stroke Imaging Scale (BASIS) in acute ischemic stroke in Chinese population.

Methods

This was a retrospective study. 566 patients of acute ischemic stroke were classified as having a major stroke or minor stroke based on BASIS. We compared short-term outcome (death, occurrence of complications, admission to intensive care unit [ICU] or neurological intensive care unit [NICU]), long-term outcome (death, recurrence of stroke, myocardial infarction, modified Rankin scale) and economic index including in-hospital cost and length of hospitalization. Continuous variables were compared by using the Student t test or Kruskal-Wallis test. Categorical variables were tested with the Chisquare test. Cox regression analysis was applied to identify whether BASIS was the independent predictive variable of death.

Results

During hospitalization, 9 patients (4.6%) died in major stroke group while no patients died in minor stroke group (p<0.001), 12 patients in the major stroke group and 5 patients in minor stroke group were admitted to ICU/NICU (p = 0.001). There were more complications (cerebral hernia, pneumonia, urinary tract infection) in major stroke group than minor stroke group (p<0.05). Meanwhile, the average cost of hospitalization in major stroke group was 3,100 US$ and 1,740 US$ in minor stroke group (p<0.001); the average length of stay in major and minor stroke group was 21.3 days and 17.3 days respectively (p<0.001). Results of the follow-up showed that 52 patients (26.7%) died in major stroke group while 56 patients (15.1%) died in minor stroke group (P<0.001). 62.2% of the patients in major stroke group and 80.4% of the patients in minor stroke group were able to live independently (P = 0.002). The survival analysis showed that patients with major stroke had 80% higher of risk of death than patients with minor stroke even after adjusting traditional atherosclerotic factors and NIHSS at baseline (HR = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.1–3.1).

Conclusion

BASIS can predict in-hospital mortality, occurrence of complication, length of stay and hospitalization cost of the acute ischemic stroke patients and can also estimate the long term outcome (death and the dependency). BASIS could and should be used as a dichotomous stroke classification system in the daily practice.