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Questionnaire for Verifying Stroke-Free Status (QVSFS)
Availability
Please visit this website for more information about the instrument: Questionnaire for Verifying Stroke-Free Status.
Classification
Supplemental – Highly Recommended: Stroke
Short Description of Instrument
Purpose: The Questionnaire for Verifying Stroke-Free Status (QVSFS) is a practical instrument for confirming absence of previous symptomatic stroke or transient ischemic attack in control subjects participating in stroke research.
 
Overview: The QVSFS is an 8-item structured questionnaire, designed to quickly and accurately identify prospectively screened study subjects who are free of symptomatic cerebrovascular disease.
 
Time: Administration time is 5 minutes or less for all subjects.
Comments/Special Instructions
N/A
Scoring and Psychometric Properties
QVSFS scores range from 0 (no questions positive) to 8 (all 8 questions positive). Subjects were considered QVSFS negative (stroke/TIA free) if their sum score was 0.  If any of the 8 items were positive (sum score 1 to 8), the QVSFS was considered positive (not stroke/TIA free). Any question that was answered "unknown" was scored as a negative response.
 
Psychometric Properties: The QVSFS can effectively identify stroke-free individuals with a high degree of accuracy, even in a population with a large proportion of patients with prior stroke or TIA. Accuracy for identifying subjects with stroke and/or TIA is lower, but the QVSFS may still be useful as a screening tool in that regard
References
Jones WJ, Williams LS, Meschia JF. Validating the Questionnaire for Verifying Stroke-Free Status (QVSFS) by neurological history and examination. Stroke. 2001;32(10):2232-2236.
  
Meschia JF, Lojacono MA, Miller MJ, Brott TG, Atkinson EJ, O'Brien PC. Reliability of the questionnaire for verifying stroke-free status. Cerebrovasc Dis. 2004;17(2-3):218-223.
  
Meschia JF, Brott TG, Chukwudelunzu FE, Hardy J, Brown RD Jr, Meissner I, Hall LJ, Atkinson EJ, O'Brien PC. Verifying the stroke-free phenotype by structured telephone interview. Stroke. 2000 31(5):1076-1080.
 
Sung VW, Johnson N, Granstaff US, Jones WJ, Meschia JF, Williams LS, Safford MM. Sensitivity and Specificity of Stroke Symptom Questions to Detect Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack. Neuroepidemiology. 2011;36(2):100-104.

 

Document last updated June 2020