ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: A comparative analysis of symptoms in arterial ischemic and stroke-like conditions in children, the development and analysis of the «Presumptive stroke in children¼ scale for prehospital diagnosis of ischemic strokes in children. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This article analyzes cases of emergency hospitalization of children in a stroke center with suspected cerebrovascular pathology as well as the symptoms of patients with suspected ischemic stroke, compares the leading and final diagnoses, identifies the main «mimics¼ of stroke and their symptom complexes. A comparison of the obtained data with the results of previous studies was carried out. RESULTS: The results show the prevalence of motor disorders and coordination disorders in cases of ischemic stroke and cerebral symptoms in cases of stroke-like conditions in children. The most frequent stroke-mimic is migraine. Based on the results of the study, we propose a screening scale for pre-hospital diagnosis of ischemic stroke in children. A preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of the scale using examples of cases of confirmed stroke and stroke-mimic was performed. CONCLUSION: Timely hospitalization of children with stroke can not only reduce mortality, but also use modern diagnostic and treatment methods to reduce the volume of brain damage with a possible complete restoration of motor and cognitive functions. Further analysis of the sensitivity and specificity of the «Presumptive stroke in children¼ scale is required.
