Investigation Program

This study program awaits you as a subject of the BiDirect study:

Interview

During this part of the examination a member of the study team asks you about changes in your state of health in the last few years. Additionally, short tests regarding concentration, memory and fine motor skills are carried out.

Ultrasonic Scan

An ultrasonic scan of your carotid artery is a simple, quick and painless examination, which helps to find out your risk of arteriosclerosis. For this purpose the thickness of the walls of your blood vessels (intima-media thickness) will be measured.

Measuring blood pressure

To examine the blood circulation we measure the blood pressure in arms and legs. From the results we can calculate the so called ankle-arm-index (“Knöchel-Arm-Index”), which can reveal contractions in the blood vessels supplying the legs.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

In a magnetic resonance scanner sectional images of your head are made – without using X-rays or a contrast medium. This technique uses the differing magnetic properties of the different kinds of tissue in your body to produce images. Ahead of the examination there will be an additional explanatory conversation with a radiologist to preclude any contraindications (e.g. electronic or metallic pieces in or at the body). Side effects caused by the strong magnetic field are not to be expected; MR-Imaging is said to be innocuous.

Body measurements

During this part of the examination a member of the study team measures your body fat percentage, your waist size and body mass index (BMI) because these are considered to be risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.

Questionnaires

There are different tick off questionnaires dealing with e.g. the topics sleep, pain, depression and quality of life. They are a supplement to your answers in the interview and to the results of the examinations.

Blood sample

During your stay in our study centre a blood sample is taken from the crook of your arm.