text_1: Portable device detects severe stroke in seconds with 92 percent accuracy
text_2: With a suspected stroke, speed matters. If this device described in the release, called a volumetric impedance phase shift spectroscopy (VIPS), could help emergency personnel determine where to take patients with suspected stroke for treatment (a comprehensive stroke center or a primary stroke center) then it might be very valuable. The release describes a published study on the VIPS diagnostic tool showing that it can accurately detect large-vessel occlusion (a blockage or closing of a blood vessel) in patients with suspected stroke yet it misses some of the key features you’d expect with a news release talking about a new diagnostic tool, especially its cost, and its accuracy measured against other methods, such as a mobile CT scan, to differentiate strokes. If care could be improved by a speedier, easy to use device which helps decide whether endovascular therapy (a procedure used to treat problems affecting the blood vessels) is necessary this could well improve outcomes for stroke patients. Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Mount Sinai, the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center and elsewhere published a study in the Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery suggesting that their device (a visor worn by emergency personnel) called a volumetric impedance phase shift spectroscopy (VIPS) was better at identifying patients with large-vessel occlusions than a standard physical examination. This matters because if the device passes all the other tests we expect of diagnostic tools including showing it’s sufficiently sensitive and specific and an improvement over other methods, then it could more quickly route patients to stroke centers that have endovascular capabilities and have a large impact on the outcome of patients.