Table 4.
Availability of diagnostic work-up in patients diagnosed with dementia
| Medical, total n (%) (n = 159) | Specialties, % |
p values | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| psychiatry (n = 71) | geriatric (n = 9) | neurology (n = 49) | internal medicine (n = 16) | surgery (n = 6) | other (n = 7) | ||||
| Basic diagnostic work-up | |||||||||
| History of cognitive symptoms | 104 (65) | 69 | 89 | 88 | 12 | 14 | 17 | <0.001 | |
| Cognitive test (any) | 97 (61) | 62 | 78 | 82 | 24 | 14 | 17 | <0.001 | |
| Psychiatric evaluation | 117 (74) | 90 | 67 | 74 | 41 | 29 | 33 | <0.001 | |
| Physical examination | 97 (61) | 34 | 78 | 80 | 100 | 86 | 67 | <0.001 | |
| Neurological examination | 90 (57) | 32 | 78 | 96 | 47 | 43 | 33 | <0.001 | |
| Neuroimaging | 110 (69) | 56 | 78 | 96 | 71 | 29 | 33 | <0.001 | |
| ADL | 122 (77) | 70 | 100 | 88 | 77 | 57 | 50 | 0.065 | |
| All items available | 38 (24) | 11 | 56 | 47 | 13 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Supplementary diagnostic work-up | |||||||||
| Neuropsychological examination | 45 (28) | 25 | 56 | 41 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.004 | |
| MRI | 32 (20) | 14 | 22 | 41 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.001 | |
| CSF examination | 32 (20) | 9 | 22 | 49 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <0.001 | |
| SPECT-CBF scan | 14 (9) | 4 | 11 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.041 | |
| FDG-PET scan | 7 (4) | 1 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.142 | |
| Genetic testing | 5 (3) | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.424 | |
| EEG | 11 (7) | 6 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.385 | |
| DAT scan | 1 (1) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 | |
Valid clinical information was defined as categories 1 and 2. The specialties indicate the type of department where the patients received a dementia diagnosis for the first time. The level of significance was based on Fisher's exact test. CBF = Cerebral blood flow; DAT = dopamine transporter; PET = positron emission tomography; FDG = fluorodeoxyglucose.