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Recommendations of Swiss Memory Clinics for the Diagnosis of Dementia Abstract. The early diagnosis of subjectively perceived or externally anamnestically observed cognitive impairments is essential for proving neurodegenerative diseases or excluding treatable causes such as internal, neurological or psychiatric disorders. Only in this way is early treatment made possible. As part of the project 3.1 of the National Dementia Strategy 2014-2019 ('Development and expansion of regional and networked centres of competence for diagnostics'), the association Swiss Memory Clinics (SMC) set itself the goal of developing quality standards for dementia clarification and improving the community-based care in this field. In these recommendations, general guidelines of diagnostics and individual examination possibilities are presented, and standards for the related processes are suggested. Individual areas such as anamnesis, clinical examination, laboratory examination, neuropsychological testing and neuroradiological procedures are discussed in detail as part of standard diagnostics, and supplementary examination methods for differential diagnosis considerations are portrayed. The most important goals of the SMC recommendations for the diagnosis of dementia are to give all those affected access to high-quality diagnostics, if possible, to improve early diagnosis of dementia and to offer the basic service providers and the employees of Memory Clinics a useful instrument for the clarification.

In patients with Graves' orbitopathy (GO), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a valuable tool to distinguish the acute inflammatory active disease from fibrotic, inactive end stage disease in demonstrating interstitial oedema within the extraocular muscles on coronal TIRM-sequences. MRI is the modality of choice to identify active inflammatory changes and to assess any immunomodulatory treatment response. MRI is always required in doubtful cases, as e.g., asymmetrical orbital involvement, to exclude any other orbital pathology and the clinical suspicion of dysthyroid optic nerve compression in Graves' orbitopathy. Computed tomography (CT) provides precise imaging of the osseous periorbital structures, but does not reveal information on the disease activity in most cases. It is therefore the method of choice to plan CT-guided orbital decompression surgery in the inactive phase of GO.

Background and Purpose: In carotid artery stent placement, marked oversizing of the stent relative to the internal carotid artery lumen is common. This study was performed to determine the influence of using oversized self-expanding nitinol stents on neointimal hyperplasia., Methods: In six greyhound dogs, 24 self-expanding nitinol stents (eight SMART stents, eight Easy Wallstents, eight Sinus-Flex stents) were inserted into both common carotid arteries (CCAs). In each CCA, two stents were deployed; a stent of the appropriate diameter was implanted distally and an oversized stent proximally. After 4 months, transverse sections of each stent were examined histologically and at computerized image analysis. Neointimal hyperplasia was determined as the proportion of the residual diameter of the patent vessel lumen compared with the stent lumen., Results: The amount of neointimal hyperplasia did not differ between the normal-sized and oversized stents. The mean preserved luminal diameter (+/-SEM) with normal- and oversized stents, respectively, were as follows: Easy Wallstent, 94% +/- 1.0 and 96% +/- 1.5; SMART stent, 92% +/- 1.6 and 93% +/- 1.8; and Sinus-Flex stent, 93% +/- 2.7 and 93% +/- 2.6. The mean preserved patent lumen with the 12 normal-sized stents (93% +/-1.0) was not significantly different from that of the 12 oversized stents (94% +/- 1.1, P =.502)., Conclusion: Under experimental conditions, use of self-expanding stents oversized by 30-40% appeared to result in neointimal hyperplasia comparable to that caused by normal-sized stents. All three stent types appeared to have similarly low neointimal responses.