title: Brain death: timing of apnea testing in primary brain stem lesion.
abstract: In a 73-year-old patient complete areflexia of the cerebral and peripheral nerves following the rupture of an aneurysm of the basilar artery was diagnosed. During apnea testing the spectral analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) revealed an irreversible shift of peak from 6 to 3 Hz within the low-frequency bands. These findings suggest that apnea testing in patients with primary lesion of the brain stem should be carried out only after an isoelectric EEG.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Litscher
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pfurtscheller
authors.forename: H V
authors.initials: HV
authors.lastname: Schalk
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rumpl
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fuchs
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001049:Apnea / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001488:Basilar Artery; D001926:Brain Death / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D002532:Intracranial Aneurysm / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012422:Rupture, Spontaneous; D013997:Time Factors