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CT Angiography as a Confirmatory Test in Brain Death

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Intracranial Pressure and Brain Monitoring XIV

Part of the book series: Acta Neurochirurgica Supplementum ((NEUROCHIRURGICA,volume 114))

Abstract

Objective: From recent studies, it remains unclear whether CT angiography could be an alternative to other established ancillary tests for the diagnosis of brain death. We examined intracranial contrast enhancement in CT angiography after clinically established brain death and compared the results with EEG and TCD findings.

Materials and Methods: Prospective study between April 2008 and January 2010. EEG, TCD and CT angiography were performed in 40 patients aged between 18 and 88 years (mean 56 years) who fulfilled the clinical criteria of brain death.

Results: In all cases, the common carotid artery, cervical internal carotid artery, cervical vertebral artery and superficial temporal artery opacified in an arterial CT angiography series. 37 out of 40 cases demonstrated no opacification of both MCA-M4, ACA-A3, PCA-P2 segments, and BA.

Conclusion: CT angiography is a promising method of evaluating intracranial circulatory arrest in brain death with a high spatial and temporal resolution, superior to all other established technical procedures. The examination is easily accessible in most hospitals, operator independent, minimally invasive and inexpensive. Therefore, CT angiography has the potential to enlarge the existing armamentarium of confirmatory brain death tests.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mrs. Janice Roberts for editorial help with the manuscript preparation.

Conflict of interest statement

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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There was no financial support for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, University Medicine Mainz, Johannes-Gutenberg-University, Langenbeckstrasse 1, Mainz, 55131, Germany

    Stefan Welschehold, Katharina Reuland, Christian Beyer, Thomas Kerz & Andre Reuland

  2. Institute of Neuroradiology, University Medicine Mainz, Johannes-Gutenberg-University, Langenbeckstrasse 1, Mainz, 55131, Germany

    Stephan Boor & Wibke Müller-Forell

Authors
  1. Stefan Welschehold
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  2. Stephan Boor
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  3. Katharina Reuland
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  4. Christian Beyer
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  5. Thomas Kerz
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  6. Andre Reuland
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  7. Wibke Müller-Forell
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefan Welschehold .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universitätsklinikum, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Hoppe-Seyler-Strasse 3, Tübingen, 72076, Germany

    Martin U. Schuhmann

  2. Addenbrooke's Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, United Kingdom

    Marek Czosnyka

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Welschehold, S. et al. (2012). CT Angiography as a Confirmatory Test in Brain Death. In: Schuhmann, M., Czosnyka, M. (eds) Intracranial Pressure and Brain Monitoring XIV. Acta Neurochirurgica Supplementum, vol 114. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0956-4_60

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0956-4_60

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-7091-0955-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-0956-4

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