Optional medical device diagnostics-depending on the results of the history, physical examination, laboratory diagnostics, and obligatory medical device diagnostics-for differential diagnostic workup
- Abdominal ultrasonography (ultrasound of the abdominal organs).
- Thyroid sonography (ultrasound of the thyroid gland).
- (Long-term) blood pressure measurement
- Exercise ECG (electrocardiogram during exercise, that is, under physical activity/exercise ergometry) – if coronary artery disease (CAD; coronary artery disease) is suspected.
- Doppler sonography of the carotids – indicated in additional vascular (vascular) problems.
- Computed tomography (cCT) or magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI; cranial MRI) – to exclude brain-organic changes and to assess the degree of atrophy; the following signs are the most common in dementia:
- Volume reduction in the temporal lobe (amygdala, hippocampus).
- Hypertensives (patients with high blood pressure) with an increase in periventricular (“around the ventricles”) hyperintense lesions (6-fold increased risk of developing cognitive impairment)
- SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography) – nuclear medicine imaging technique in which the accumulation of radioactive substances in the various organs (here. brain) can be visualized; suitable for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s dementia as well as lobar dementias.
- Positron emission tomography (PET) – variant of emission computed tomography (ECT) an imaging method of nuclear medicine, which here produces cross-sectional images of the brain by visualizing the distribution of a weakly radioactively labeled substance (radiopharmaceutical), thereby imaging biochemical and physiological functions of the brain
