Neurología : publicación oficial de la Sociedad Española de Neurología
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The clinical criteria for brain death consist of the demonstration of the absence of any clinical sign of encephalic activity. Confirmatory testing is usually not required for the diagnosis of brain death, except in some special situations that the Spanish law details. In these situations demonstrating cerebral circulatory arrest (CCA) by cerebral flow studies is necessary to support the diagnosis of brain death. ⋯ TCD is a useful method detecting CCA and therefore can be used to confirm brain death in a clinically brain-dead patient. The presence of reverberating flow, systolic spikes or absence of flow in the basilar and both middle cerebral arteries observed in two examinations is highly specific for the prediction of CCA and brain death in all patients.