Patient Friendly Summary of the ACR Appropriateness Criteria: Acute Mental Status Change, Delirium, and New Onset Psychosis

Changes in mental status can be caused by a variety of factors, including intoxication, infection, stroke, bleeding, tumor, fluid, trauma or brain injury, and inflammation. This can show up as changes in behavior, alertness, agitation, confusion, and seizures. When there is high suspicion of bleeding, stroke, infection, or tumor or if the individual has extremely high blood pressure, CT or MRI without intravenous (IV) contrast may be the initial examination. If the examination without contrast does not show the cause, follow-up CT or MRI performed with IV contrast may help if a tumor or an infection is suspected.

Source: Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR - August 31, 2020 Category: Radiology Authors: Susan Anemone, Tasneem Lalani Tags: Appropriate Use Criteria Source Type: research