Optional medical device diagnostics – depending on the results of the history, physical examination, laboratory diagnostics, and obligatory medical device diagnostics – for differential diagnostic workup
Cardiological examinations
- Electrocardiogram (ECG; recording of the electrical activities of the heart muscle).
- Exercise ECG (electrocardiogram during exercise, that is, under physical activity/exercise ergometry).
- Long-term ECG
- 24-hour blood pressure measurement
- Echocardiography (echo; cardiac ultrasound) – if structural heart disease is suspected.
- Transcranial Doppler sonography (ultrasound examination through the intact skull for orienting control of cerebral (“concerning the brain”) blood flow; brain ultrasound) – Doppler sonographic evidence of stenosis (narrowing), plaques (deposits), or intima-media thickening/thickness (IMD; IMT) of the carotids (carotid arteries) indicate a 6-, 4-, and 2-fold increased risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack, respectively)
Further examinations
- Abdominal sonography (ultrasound examination of the abdominal organs) – if renal dysfunction is suspected.
- Sleep apnea screening – procedure in which sleep monitoring can detect breathing cessations.
- Electrical impedance analysis (measurement of body compartments/body composition) – to determine body fat, extracellular body mass (blood and tissue fluid), body cell mass (muscle and organ mass) and total body water including body mass index (BMI, body mass index) and waist-to-hip ratio (THV).
- Ophthalmic examinations:
- Tonometry (intraocular pressure measurement)
- Gonioscopy (examination of the angle of the ventricle).