Brain death: use of dynamic CT and intravenous digital subtraction angiography.

Brain death results when irreversible intracranial circulatory arrest, involving both the internal carotid and intracranial vertebral basilar systems, occurs despite preservation of extracranial circulation . To document the absence of intracranial blood flow and establish the irreversibility of the condition, intraarterial cerebral angiography and radionuclide cerebral angiography have become the accepted imaging means of confirming a clinical diagnosis of brain death. After encountering cases in which the radionuclide angiogram was equivocal and cerebral arteriography was therefore required for confirmation, we undertook to study the ability of intravenous digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and dynamic CT to diagnose brain death.