Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Stroke. 2013 Jul 11;44(9):2500–2505. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.113.000878

Table 4.

Task Force Consensus: Definition and Clinical Context of Rapidly Improved Stroke Symptoms (RISS) as an Exclusion Criterion for IV t-PA

 • Improvement to a mild stroke such that any remaining deficits appear non-disabling
 • The following typically should be considered disabling deficits:
  ○ Complete hemianopsia (≥ 2 on the NIHSS Question #3), or
  ○ Severe aphasia (≥ 2 on NIHSS Question #9), or
  ○ Visual or sensory extinction (≥ 1 on NIHSS Question #11), or
  ○ Any weakness limiting sustained effort against gravity (≥ 2 on NIHSS Questions #6 or #7),
  ○ Any deficits that lead to a total NIHSS >5, or
  ○ Any remaining deficit considered potentially disabling in the view of the patient
   and the treating practitioner. Clinical judgment is required.

All neurological deficits present at the time of the treatment decision should be considered in the context of individual risk and benefit as well as the patient's baseline functional status.