Benefits of combination of electroencephalography, short latency somatosensory evoked potentials, and transcranial Doppler techniques for confirming brain death.
OBJECTIVE
Optimization of combining electroencephalography (EEG), short latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SLSEP) and transcranial Doppler (TCD) techniques to diagnose brain death.


METHODS
One hundred and eleven patients (69 males, 42 females) from the major hospitals of Zhejiang Province were examined with portable EEG, SLSEP and TCD devices. Re-examinations occurred < or =12 h later.


RESULTS
The first examination revealed that the combination of SLSEP and EEG led to more sensitive diagnoses than the combination of SLSEP and TCD. Re-examination confirmed this and also revealed that the combination of TCD and EEG was the most sensitive.


CONCLUSIONS
The results show that using multiple techniques to diagnose brain death is superior to using single method, and that the combination of SLSEP and EEG is better than other combinations.
Wang
Kang
K
Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, China.
Yuan
Yuan
Y
Xu
Zi-qi
ZQ
Wu
Xiao-liang
XL
Luo
Ben-yan
BY
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001926:Brain Death / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002648:Child; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods*; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017585:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult