Which three domains are evaluated by the Glasgow Coma Scale?

• A. Pupil size, pulse rate, and blood pressure
• B. Eye opening, Verbal response, and Motor response
• C. Pain response, temperature, and coordination
• D. Language ability, memory, and orientation

Answer: (B)

The Glasgow Coma Scale assesses consciousness by focusing on three aspects of a patient’s responsiveness: eye opening, verbal response, and motor response. Eye opening measures arousal and brainstem function (spontaneous, to speech, to pain, or none). Verbal response reflects language ability and cortical function (oriented, confused, inappropriate words, incomprehensible sounds, or none). Motor response evaluates the ability to move appropriately and motor pathways (obeys commands, localizes to pain, withdraws from pain, abnormal flexion, abnormal extension, or none). These three domains together yield a total score that helps gauge injury severity and track changes over time.

The other options mix up signs that are not part of the GCS: pupil size and vital signs are general physiological measures, not components of the GCS; pain response, temperature, and coordination aren’t the domain set used by the scale; language ability, memory, and orientation aren’t organized as the three GCS domains, while Verbal response in the GCS does cover aspects of language and communication.