Orbital Artery Doppler Ultrasound in Brain Death

Orbital Artery Doppler Ultrasound as an Ancillary Test for Diagnosing Brain Death: a Prospective, Single Blind Comparative Study

Brain death is the irreversible loss of all activity in the brain, brainstem, and cerebellum, the part of the central nervous system that remains inside the skull.

The clinical diagnosis of brain death should be supported by ancillary tests that provide information about cerebral blood flow or electrical activity in the brain. Some of the ancillary tests that evaluate cerebral blood flow include transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TDUS), computed tomography (CT) angiography (CTA), and catheter-based cerebral angiography.

This study hypothesized that Orbital Doppler ultrasonography (ODUS) alone is more effective than TDUS in detecting intracranial blood flow in diagnosing brain death. To this end, the investigators examined the results of ODUS in patients diagnosed as brain dead who underwent CT angiography.

Inclusion Criteria:

• suspected brain death

Exclusion Criteria:

• eye surgery,
• uncontrolled diabetes mellitus,
• facial trauma,
• hypothermia,
• hypotension (systolic pressure < 100 mm Hg)
• endocrine-metabolic coma