Application of brainstem auditory evoked potentials in diagnosis of brain death / 中国中西医结合急救杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic validity of application of brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) as an ancillary test in patients with brain death.Methods A prospective observational study was conducted. Adult patients (≥ 18 years) with brain death were consecutively admitted to the Department of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Beijing Tiantan Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University from July 2015 to June 2017, and they further underwent BAEP monitoring. The following findings: absence of all waveforms at bilateral sides, absence of all waveforms except wave-Ⅰonly present at bilateral orunilateral side were set as the positive criteria of BAEP for the diagnosis of brain death, and its diagnostic sensitivity (SEN), positive predictive value (PPV) and false negative rate (FNR) were further assessed.Results A total of 47 patients were enrolled in the study, and the 43 complete BAEP results were analyzed. The SEN, PPV and FNR of the above 3 types of diagnostic criteria (absence of all waveforms, and unilateral or bilateral presence of wave-Ⅰ only) were 100% [95% confidence interval (95%CI) 90-100], 100% (95%CI 89-100), and 0% (95%CI 0-9), respectively.Conclusion As an ancillary test, BAEP has extremely high validity for the diagnosis of patients with brain death, thus it should be used more extensively in clinical practice.