FOUR score
The FOUR Score is a clinical grading scale designed for use by medical professionals in the assessment of patients with impaired level of consciousness. It was developed by Dr. Eelco F.M. Wijdicks and colleagues in Neurocritical care at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
"FOUR" in this context is an acronym for "Full Outline of UnResponsiveness."
The FOUR Score is a 17-point scale (with potential scores ranging from 0 to 16). Decreasing FOUR Score is associated with worsening level of consciousness. The FOUR Score assesses four domains of neurological function: eye responses, motor responses, brainstem reflexes, and breathing pattern.
The rationale for the development of the FOUR Score was to create a clinical grading scale for the assessment of patients with impaired level of consciousness that can be used in patients with or without endotracheal intubation. The main clinical grading scale in use for patients with impaired level of consciousness has historically been the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), which cannot be administered to patients with an endotracheal tube (one component of the GCS is the assessment of verbal responses, which are not possible in the presence of an endotracheal tube.)
The FOUR score has been validated with reference to the Glasgow Coma Scale in several clinical contexts, including assessment by physicians in the Neurocritical Care Unit,[1] assessment by intensive care nurses,[2] assessment of patients in the medical intensive care unit (ICU),[3] and assessment of patients in the Emergency Department.[4] Comparison of the inter-observer reliability of the FOUR Score and the GCS suggests that the FOUR Score may have a modest but significant advantage in this particular measure of test function.[5]
References
- ↑ Wijdicks EF, Bamlet WR, Maramattom BV, Manno EM, McClelland RL. (2005). "Validation of a new coma scale: The FOUR score.". Annals of Neurology 58: 585–93. doi:10.1002/ana.20611. PMID 16178024.
- ↑ Wolf CA, Wijdicks EF, Bamlet WR, McClelland RL. (2007). "Further validation of the FOUR score coma scale by intensive care nurses.". Mayo Clinic Proceedings 82 (4): 435–438. doi:10.4065/82.4.435. PMID 17418071.
- ↑ Iyer VN, Mandrekar JN, Danielson RD, Zubkov AY, Elmer JL, Wijdicks EF. (2009). "Validity of the FOUR score coma scale in the medical intensive care unit.". Mayo Clinic Proceedings 84 (8): 694–701. doi:10.4065/84.8.694. PMC 2719522. PMID 19648386.
- ↑ Stead LG, Wijdicks EF, Bhagra A, Kashyap R, Bellolio MF, Nash DL, Enduri S, Schears R, William B. (2009). "Validation of a new coma scale, the FOUR score, in the emergency department.". Neurocritical Care 10 (1): 50–54. doi:10.1007/s12028-008-9145-0. PMID 18807215.
- ↑ Fischer M, Rüegg S, Czaplinski A, Strohmeier M, Lehmann A, Tschan F, Hunziker PR, Marsch SC. (2010). "Inter-rater reliability of the Full Outline of UnResponsiveness score and the Glasgow Coma Scale in critically ill patients: a prospective observational study.". Critical Care 14 (2): R64. doi:10.1186/cc8963. PMC 2887186. PMID 20398274.