[Progress of technical medicine within the field of gerontoneurology (author's transl)]

1938 respectively 1978 are dates for progress of technical medicine concerning gerontoneurology. Following the discussion of the development in technical (apparatus), chemical and immunological diagnostic activities in neurology the applicability in elderly people should be described. On principle there are no methods of investigations which cannot be used in geriatric causes. Main point of interest is the correct indication. Non invasive methods can be used without somatic risk; one has to observe only the fact of psychological stress for the patient; indications of invasive methods (merely angiography of vessels within the brain) must be focused on special diagnosis of the illness. Suspicious facts of space occupying intracranial process almost everytime ask for angiography following EEG and cranial computertomography. In cases of arteriosclerosis in aged people with typical changes within the vessel system of the brain one should only use angiographical investigations if clinical findings (based on noninvasive methods) show indications for surgical treatment in extracranial regions of the brain vessels. It might be the same procedure if shunt-operation between carotis externa and interna circulation system can be expected as curative or prophylactic influence within the neurological condition. In these cases risk of selective angiography of the vessels within the brain (outgoing from arteria femoralis) are much less dangerous than in direct charges. First of all neurological status, general condition and age will be decive for medical indication. One should not use the full range of diagnostic features in gerontoneurology only to satisfy diagnostic appeasement.