Standardisation in acute stroke research: A scoping review of upper limb assessments against Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable (SRRR) benchmarks.

The review did not extract individual study findings or assess the quality of the included studies. Only English-language studies were included, and grey literature was not searched. Some studies labelled acute assessed participants after the agreed acute window, and some did not report time post-stroke. Many studies had small samples, and demographic details were often underreported. Some assessments may have been missed because they were recorded under different labels or as subtests within broader tools. Acute-phase practical limits may have made complex movement or imaging assessments less feasible.

The study was funded by Brain Research UK, the UK Stroke Association, the Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre. The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.

Do not read frequent use of FMA-UE or NIHSS as proof that these tests improve patient care. This review maps research practices, not treatment effects.