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REVIEW article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neurocritical and Neurohospitalist Care
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1491263

Ancillary tests for brain death

Provisionally accepted
Shyam Duvuru Shyam Duvuru 1Vivek Sanker Vivek Sanker 1Rajeeb Kumar Mishra Rajeeb Kumar Mishra 2Arvind K Sharma Arvind K Sharma 3Shir Lynn Lim Shir Lynn Lim 4Nisha Baskar Nisha Baskar 1Vijay K Sharma Vijay K Sharma 4*
  • 1 Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Chennai, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
  • 2 National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, Karnataka, India
  • 3 Zydus Hospitals, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
  • 4 National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background-Ancillary tests are often used in the determination of death by neurologic criteria (DNC), especially when the clinical examination is inconclusive. DNC is widely accepted as defined by comprehensive report of the World Brain Death Project. However, there are several medical, legal, religious, ethical and social controversies. Accordingly, 'premature' as well as a 'delayed' diagnosis of brain death attracts these issues.-Depending upon the availability and experience of the managing medical teams, various ancillary tests are employed for an early and supplementary diagnosis of brain death. Results-We describe the practicality, test performance and utility of some of the commonly employed ancillary tests for the diagnosis of brain death in clinical practice, along with their case examples. Conclusions-Brain death remains a clinical diagnosis, based on history and findings on physical examination, and made according to the recommended criteria. All ancillary investigations are used as supplementary tests with variable accuracy parameters. These ancillary tests often facilitate an early and 'timely' diagnosis of brain death.

    Keywords: Brain Death, Ancillary tests, Death by neurologic criteria, Brainstem functions, Cerebral circulatory arrest

    Received: 10 Sep 2024; Accepted: 13 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Duvuru, Sanker, Mishra, Sharma, Lim, Baskar and Sharma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Vijay K Sharma, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.