FAST and BE-FAST Stroke Assessment
Apply the FAST and BE-FAST stroke screens.
Open the calculator → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.
Example
- Face droop
- Yes
Result: FAST: POSITIVE
The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.
What you enter
- Balance loss (BE-FAST)
- Eyes: vision change (BE-FAST)
- Face droop
- Arm weakness
- Speech change
What this is
FAST checks four items - Face (droop), Arm (drift), Speech (slurred or absent), Time (note onset; treat as emergency) - and is the most widely taught public-facing stroke recognition tool. BE-FAST adds two posterior-circulation items in front of the FAST core: Balance (sudden loss) and Eyes (sudden vision loss or double vision). Sophie Well walks through both, prompting the rescuer once per item and reporting the screen result and the time-of-onset stamp the receiving facility needs.
When to use it
Use this when a bystander, first-responder, or ED triage nurse encounters a patient with sudden neurologic symptoms. FAST is the public-education baseline; BE-FAST catches a meaningful fraction of posterior-circulation strokes that FAST misses - vestibular and visual presentations - and is the screen most stroke centers now teach for prehospital and ED triage. Time of onset is the single most important data point for the receiving stroke team because it gates IV thrombolysis and large-vessel intervention windows; if the exact time is unknown, document "last known well."
How this is calculated
Kleindorfer DO, et al. Designing a message for public stroke education using the FAST mnemonic. Stroke. 2007;38(10):2864-2868. BE-FAST: Aroor S, Singh R, Goldstein LB. BE-FAST: reducing the proportion of strokes missed using the FAST mnemonic. Stroke. 2017;48(2):479-481. Read the sources: Kleindorfer 2007 ↗, Aroor 2017 ↗
A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.
More in Cardiology.