title: Subtotal Cerebral Circulatory Arrest With Preserved Breathing Activity: A Case Report.
abstract: A suspicion of brain death (BD) is the 1st step in the process of BD certification. Owing to its utmost importance, the process must yield an unequivocal answer so that the committee for the determination of BD has no doubts. We present a case of a patient with suspected BD, with a diagnosis of no intracranial flow in 4-vessel digital-subtraction angiography, who developed some reflexes just before clinical examination for BD assessment. The source of clinical findings was determined to be an extracranial blood supply, which enabled the preservation of trace lower brain stem functioning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland. Electronic address: magwuj@gumed.edu.pl.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Wujtewicz
authors.affiliation: 2nd Department of Radiology, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Szarmach
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chwojnicki
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Pomeranian Medical University, Szczecin, Poland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sawicki
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Owczuk
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015901:Angiography, Digital Subtraction / Q000379:methods; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply; D001926:Brain Death / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D020520:Brain Infarction / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000503:physiopathology; D002533:Cerebral Angiography / Q000379:methods; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011309:Preservation, Biological; D012119:Respiration