Brief six-domain cognitive screen validated for use in acute stroke, UK study finds

A UK validation study in the Journal of Neurology tested the Queen Square Cognitive Assessment Screen (Q-CAS) — a brief, six-domain-plus-mood cognitive screening tool taking 9–15 minutes to administer — against 648 healthy controls and 150 patients with acute stroke [Primary Study]. The tool showed comparable sensitivity and specificity regardless of whether the stroke lesion was in the left or right hemisphere.

Q-CAS is designed specifically for settings where full neuropsychological assessment is not feasible at the point of acute need — the position most stroke pathways are in given constrained neuropsychology capacity nationally. This is a single UK validation study, and the authors do not report a head-to-head comparison against other brief screening tools already in clinical use.

This offers stroke and neuropsychology services a validated, time-limited screening option to consider ahead of community rehabilitation handover, where relying on scarce full neuropsychological assessment capacity to triage every acute stroke patient is not feasible.