99mTc-HMPAO SPECT in the diagnosis of brain death

Intensive Care Med. 1998 Sep;24(9):911-7. doi: 10.1007/s001340050689.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of single proton emission tomography (SPECT) with 99mTc-HMPAO in the diagnosis of brain death (BD).

Design: Prospective study in comatose and brain-dead patients.

Setting: Neurologic ICU.

Patients and methods: Fifty comatose patients (age range: 10 days-75 years) were submitted to SPECT study. In 21 of them (42%) reversible factors (e.g., influence of drugs affecting the central nervous system) were present. Thirty-eight patients were clinically brain-dead, while the remaining 12 were tested both in pre-terminal conditions and after the clinical onset of BD.

Interventions: Brain SPECT following i.v. injection of 99mTc-HMPAO (300-1100 MBq), using a 4-headed gamma-camera (20 min, 360 degrees, 88 images).

Measurements and results: All patients tested in pre-terminal conditions showed preserved brain perfusion. Two of them had flat EEGs despite the absence of any reversible cause of coma; three patients survived, but remained in persistent vegetative states. SPECT confirmed the diagnosis of BD in 45 out of 47 patients (95.7%), clearly showing the arrest of brain perfusion (picture of "empty skull"); in two clinically brain-dead children (aged 10 days and 12 months, respectively) weak perfusion of the basal ganglia, thalamus and/or brain stem was still present, precluding the diagnosis of BD; both of them died a few days later.

Conclusions: Our results confirm the reliability of SPECT in the diagnosis of BD. A problem arises about its effectiveness in brain-dead children, but this seems to be a matter of definition of BD and cerebral viability, rather than a limit of SPECT.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Brain Death / diagnosis*
  • Brain Death / diagnostic imaging
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Prospective Studies
  • Radiopharmaceuticals*
  • Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime*
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

Substances

  • Radiopharmaceuticals
  • Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime