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Article History

First Online: 13 April 2020

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Not applicable.

: Not applicable. The guideline was approved by the DMKG board of directors.

: Declaration of interests and handling of conflicts of interest. All participants in the guideline have submitted their declarations of interest (AWMF form for the declaration of interests in the context of guideline projects) to the coordinator or the Editorial Office Guidelines of the DGN in due time and completely filled out. In the form, those completing the form were asked to indicate whether the interests presented were thematically related to the guideline/guideline topic. If the information provided was incomplete, corrections were requested. They were also asked to indicate the amount of remuneration, which, however, is not published. A self-assessment no longer took place. All declarations of interest were reviewed by an anonymous, independent and knowledgeable conflict of interest officer of the DGN for potential relevant thematic interests. The information was examined with regard to an existing thematic reference, thematic relevance, type and intensity of the relationship and the absolute amount of the remuneration. The following evaluation criteria were applied:• Paid assessor/consultant work for industrial companies• Participation in a scientific advisory board: paid work for industrial companies• Lectures: paid for by the industry• Authorship or co-authorship: only if industry-driven• Research projects/conducting clinical studies: directly or partially financed by industrial companies• Ownership interests (patents, shareholdings) with reference to guidelines• indirect interests with relevanceThe 50% rule of the DGN is a special requirement of the DGN since May 2014 which stipulates that for a balanced composition of the guideline group, at least 50% of the participants in the guideline must have no or only minor conflicts of interest relevant to the guideline. The DGN has decided to introduce the 50% rule because it prevents any overlap of individual interests in voting.Evaluation of the interests presentedThe editorial committee consists of 14 members, including two lead authors. Of the total group, 9 members are free of conflicts of interest or have only minor thematically relevant conflicts of interest. 5 contributors with moderate conflicts of interest were not involved in the formulation of the guidelines text. They had an advisory and/or corrective function.The 50% rule of the DGN was observed. For reasons of transparency, the interests of the parties involved and their assessment by DGN conflict of interest officers are listed a summary table on the webpage of the guideline.