A new pen-and-paper stroke-screening tool can be completed in a third of the time of existing tests and avoids reliance on verbal communication and cumbersome testing materials that make it difficult to complete at bedside, said its UK developers. 

The Oxford Visual Perception Screen (OxVPS) is a 15-minute assessment comprising 10 tasks including picture naming, star counting and reading. Test results are visualised in an easily interpretable wheel. Writing in Clinical Rehabilitation, authors from Durham University and Oxford University said their 107 study participants (average age 74.2 years) demonstrated persistent high performance, at ceiling. Subjects’ visual acuity negatively impacted just two tasks – involving figure copying and shape perception – and the effect of age was only observed in the face recognition and reading tasks, they said.  

OxVPS has the potential to improve the detection of visual perception difficulties after stroke and support the planning of subsequent in-depth assessment and decisions on interim rehabilitation advice until a diagnosis is confirmed, researchers said.