The purpose of this study is to assess the reliability of computed tomography angiography (CTA) to diagnose brain death, face of several conditions that make impossible to define such diagnosis using clinical criteria exclusively.
Critically ill patients, presenting Glasgow Coma Score 5 or lower, will be submitted to the Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) of the skull assessment, and follow a clinical evaluation for brain death, additionally, transcranial Doppler would be applied as the gold standard for brain death. We will exclude patients whose do not can be submitted to contrast injection, or if a brain death clinical evaluation has been performed prior the CTA.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
106
Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP.
São Paulo, Brazil
Assess the presence or absence of contrast medium filling of the intracranial vessels in comatose patients.
After excluding confounding factors, we will submit comatose patients to CTA. Immediately after the exam, we will perform clinical evaluation for brain death and calculate CTA sensibility and specificity for this diagnosis. Time between these two interventions will be measured.
Time frame: 1 year
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