Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Department of General Practice, Kapucijnenvoer 33, blok J, B 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
BMC Fam Pract. 2011 Jun 27;12:60. doi: 10.1186/1471-2296-12-60.
From both clinical experience and research we learned that in complex progressive disorders such as dementia, diagnosis includes multiple steps, each with their own clinical and research characteristics.
Diagnosing starts with a trigger phase in which the GP gradually realizes that dementia may be emerging. This is followed by a disease-oriented diagnosis and subsequently a care -oriented diagnosis. In parallel the GP should consider the consequences of this process for the caregiver and the interaction between both. As soon as a comprehensive diagnosis and care plan are available, monitoring follows.
We propose to split the diagnostic process into four diagnostic steps, followed by a monitoring phase. We recommend to include these steps when designing studies on screening, diagnosis and monitoring of patients with dementia and their families.
从临床经验和研究中我们了解到，在痴呆等复杂进行性疾病中，诊断包括多个步骤，每个步骤都有其自身的临床和研究特点。
诊断始于触发阶段，在该阶段全科医生逐渐意识到痴呆可能正在出现。接下来是面向疾病的诊断，随后是面向护理的诊断。同时，全科医生应考虑这一过程对护理人员的影响以及两者之间的相互作用。一旦有了全面的诊断和护理计划，就可以进行监测。
我们建议将诊断过程分为四个诊断步骤，然后是监测阶段。我们建议在设计痴呆患者及其家属的筛查、诊断和监测研究时纳入这些步骤。
