Boosting the chances to improve stroke treatment.

Background And Purpose: There is a lack of agreement regarding measuring the effects of stroke treatment in clinical trials, which often relies on the dichotomized value of 1 outcome scale. Alternative analyses consist mainly of 2 strategies: use all the information from an ordinal scale and combine information from several outcome scales in a single estimate.

Methods: We reanalyzed 3 outcome scales that assessed patient recovery (modified Rankin Scale, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, and Barthel Index).