Q rimary care providers (PCPs) often see elderly patients in their practice with symptoms of dementia, usually because of irreversible conditions. Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is an often unrecognized cause of dementia symptoms, and can be reversible with appropriate diagnosis and treatment, specifically ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunting. It has been estimated that 375,000 Americans mis...

Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a syndrome characterized by the triad of gait disturbance, mental deterioration and urinary incontinence, associated with ventriculomegaly and normal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure. The clinical presentation (triad) may be atypical or incomplete, or mimicked by other diseases, hence the need for supplementary tests, particularly to predict postsurgical...

Providing normal reference values and the means to interpret such values in practice is an urgent issue requiring consensus. Five basic approaches to defining normalcy for 24 h blood pressures (BP) are considered: 1) the relationship of ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) to morbidity and mortality, 2) the relationship of ABP to end-organ involvement, 3) ABP levels in normal populations, 4) the rel...