Demonstration of early capillary lesions in the brain by means of artificial reperfusion

Nine patients are reported in whom functional brain death was determined as exactly as possible by neurological (in part also electroencephalographic and/or angiographic) examination in combination with analysis of the clinical history. During the first hour, at 2-4 hr, and later than 4 hr after the occurrence of functional brain death, the mean systemic pressure was raised to 30% above normal by infusion of Arterenol. The infusions lasted 15-30 min; in spite of the raised blood pressure, the patients died of cardiovascular attention to vascular damage; none was found whenever the reperfusion was completed within the first hour after determination of circulatory arrest. In all three cases in which reperfusion was performed, after more than 4 hr the neuropathological findings were similar. In one case the EEG showed a burst-type pattern during reperfusion within the first hour after determination of brain death.