Effects of state-wide implementation of the Los Angeles Motor Scale for triage of stroke patients in clinical practice.

Background: The prehospital identification of stroke patients with large-vessel occlusion (LVO), that should be immediately transported to a thrombectomy capable centre is an unsolved problem. Our aim was to determine whether implementation of a state-wide standard operating procedure (SOP) using the Los Angeles Motor Scale (LAMS) is feasible and enables correct triage of stroke patients to hospitals offering (comprehensive stroke centres, CSCs) or not offering (primary stroke centres, PSCs) thrombectomy.

Methods: Prospective study involving all patients with suspected acute stroke treated in a 4-month period in a state-wide network of all stroke-treating hospitals (eight PSCs and two CSCs).

Principal Component Analysis of gait in Parkinson's disease: relevance of gait velocity.

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a method to estimate the relation between data points. We used PCA to analyse movements of the upper and lower extremities during treadmill walking in healthy subjects and two groups of Parkinsonian patients. Healthy subjects (n=35) showed a typical pattern with high values of PC1 and low values in a descending order of PC2-PC4.