The FAST scale is a functional scale designed to evaluate patients at the more moderate-severe stages of dementia when the MMSE no longer can reflect changes in a meaningful clinical way.
Continue reading “Functional Assessment Scale Tool (FAST)”
The FAST scale is a functional scale designed to evaluate patients at the more moderate-severe stages of dementia when the MMSE no longer can reflect changes in a meaningful clinical way.
Continue reading “Functional Assessment Scale Tool (FAST)”
The Barthel Index (BI) is one of the most widely used rating scales for the measurement of activity limitations in patients with neuromuscular and musculoskeletal conditions in an inpatient rehabilitation setting.
Continue reading “Barthel Index of Activities of Daily Living”
Grading and staging refers to a semiquantitative assessment of the necroinflammatory activity (grade) and degree of fibrosis (stage) in relation to chronic hepatitis.
Continue reading “Histologic Scoring Systems for Chronic Liver Disease”
The diagnosis of familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is based upon three factors: typical clinical manifestations, a positive response to colchicine therapy, and genetic testing, although currently available tests do not detect all mutations associated with FMF.
Continue reading “Diagnostic Criteria of Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF)”
The use of the Alvarado scoring system, which includes clinical examination findings and laboratory values, is helpful in ruling out appendicitis. Scores range from 1 to 10, with higher scores indicating a greater risk of appendicitis. When the score is less than 4, appendicitis is uncommon, and imaging and other interventions can be avoided.
Continue reading “Alvarado Score for Acute Appendicitis”
The diagnosis of the exact subtype of inflammatory myopathy is based on the combination of clinical history, tempo of disease progression, pattern of muscle involvement, muscle enzyme levels, electromyographic findings, muscle-biopsy analysis, and for some conditions, the presence of certain autoantibodies.
Continue reading “Diagnosis of Inflammatory Myopathies”
Tumor markers are playing an increasingly important role in cancer detection and management. These laboratory-based tests are potentially useful in screening for early malignancy, aiding cancer diagnosis, determining prognosis, surveillance following curative surgery for cancer, up front predicting drug response or resistance, and monitoring therapy in advanced disease.
Continue reading “Tumor Markers in Clinical Practice”
Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a sporadic and fatal alpha-synuclein-linked oligodendrogliopathy manifesting with progressive autonomic failure, poorly levodopa-responsive parkinsonism, and cerebellar ataxia, in any combination.
Continue reading “Diagnostic Criteria for Multiple-System Atrophy (MSA)”
The death of a loved one is one of life’s greatest, universal stressors to which most bereaved individuals successfully adapt without clinical intervention. For a minority of bereaved individuals, grief is complicated by superimposed problems and healing does not occur. The resulting syndrome of complicated grief causes substantial distress and functional impairment even years after a loss, yet knowing when and how to intervene can be a challenge.
Continue reading “Guidelines for the Diagnosis of Prolonged Grief Disorder”
Recently, the term “autoreactive pericarditis” has been introduced to describe patients with identification of elements indicative of an autoimmune response who would otherwise be classed as idiopathic.
Continue reading “Diagnosis of Autoreactive Pericarditis”
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