Diagnosis of brain death by orbital Doppler ultrasound: a comparative research study

Abstract

Aim: It remains unknown whether orbital Doppler-ultrasound (ODUS) could be an alternative to other established ancillary tests for the diagnosis of brain death. We investigated the effectiveness of ODUS in the diagnosis of brain death and compared data obtained from ODUS with transcranial Doppler-ultrasound (TDUS) and carotid Doppler-ultrasound (CDUS) findings.

Material and methods: ODUS, CDUS and TDUS examinations were performed on 22 consecutive patients who had clinical examination and confirmatory test findings consistent with brain death. The compatibility of resistive indices (RI) from ODUS, TDUS and CDUS examinations were analyzed.

Results: In ODUS examinations, the RI values were equal to or greater than one in 15 patients (68%). In the remaining 7 patients, the RI values were ≥0.75. RI values were ≥ 1 in 16 (72%) and 18 (82%) patients in CDUS and TDUS examinations, respectively. RI values of CDUS and TDUS were ≥0.76 in the remaining patients.

Conclusion: ODUS is an easily applicable technique that is safer, cheaper and faster when compared with the other confirmatory tests. False results could be prevented by evaluating patients with an ODUS RI value of < 1 together with the TDUS and/or CDUS results.