International Network for Brain Death Research

[About Author][About Brain Death][Organizations][Viewpoints][Cryonics][Network][Coma][Publications][Books][Art][Movies]
[Science Fiction][Jokes][Game][Russian Version][Contact][>>>>]

“Today the human death is believed to occur after 4 to 6 minutes of warm cardiac arrest because that is limit of standard resuscitation technology. However, with new experimental treatments more than 10 minutes of warm cardiac arrest can be survived without brain injury. There are good reasons to believe that future technologies could reserve one hour of warm cardiac arrest” (“Preventing Death”, www.alcor.org ).

[<<MENU<<]

What is brain death?

BRAIN DEATH
Eelco F. M. Wijdicks, M.D. Professor of Neurology, Medical Director of Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit, Saint Marys Hospital, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
Very interesting publication...!!! All diagnostic criteria for brain death...

WHAT IS "BRAIN DEATH" AND HOW IS IT DIAGNOSED?
The concept of total "brain death" as an alternative to the older definition of irreversible circulatory-respiratory failure was first introduced in a 1968 report authored by a special committee of the Harvard Medical School...

Death: The last taboo
Brain death (irreversible cessation of all function of the brain) normally occurs after a stroke, or an impact that causes the brain to swell and push against the skull, preventing blood from flowing to the brain. In the absence of oxygenated blood, brain cells quickly die...

What is brain death?
Question:
What is brain death?
Answer:
Brain death is defined as the irreversible loss of all functions of the brain. It can be determined in several ways. First - no electrical activity in the brain; this is determined by an EEG. Second - no blood flow to the brain; this is determined by blood flow studies. Third - absence of function of all parts of the brain - as determined by clinical assessment (no movement, no response to stimulation, no breathing, no brain reflexes.)
There are several ways in which a person can become brain dead, these include:
1. Anoxia caused by drowning, respiratory diseases, or drug overdose.
2. Ischemia - Blockage of an artery leading to the brain or in the brain, heart attack (stoppage of the heart for a period of time), bleeding in the brain.
3. Intracranial hematoma - caused by a head injury (a blow to the head) or a ruptured aneurism.
4. A gunshot wound to the head - causes destruction of brain tissue and swelling of the brain.
5. Intracranial Aneurysm - the ballooning of a blood vessel supplying the brain - can cut off blood supply or rupture.
6. Brain tumors - can destroy brain tissue and increase pressure within the brain.

The term "Brain Death"
The term "Brain Death" has an ominous implication, and rightfully so, but is occasionally wrongfully used with tragic consequences.
Brain death is defined by medical authorities as irreversible cessation of all brain activity. Simply stated, this means that the brain is no longer alive and cannot be brought back to life...

Understanding Brain Death. By Paul A. Byrne, M.D.
Legislation to establish "brain-related" criteria for death has uniformly confounded irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain with death of the human person. Much of the confusion has come from widespread misunderstanding of how the word "death" has been used and what it has meant. Cessation of all functions of the entire brain, whether irreversible or not, has not been linked necessarily to total destruction of the brain or to death of the person...

I remember this a very interesting case arised so many questions. Can we define the brain death in a case of brain stem death?

Brain Death: Presentation by Gabriel Soudry, MD and J Stevan Nagel, MD
A 47-year-old man was working on his boat when he fell to the ground unconscious. He was taken to a local emergency ward where a head CT showed a large brainstem hemorrhage...
On Tc-99m HMPAO brain scintigraphy, the initial anterior flow study and subsequent planar views in the anterior and lateral projections demonstrate no appreciable intracerebral blood flow in either the internal carotid or posterior cerebral circulations.
Diagnosis: Brain death
Planar_picture

On Tc-99m HMPAO brain scintigraphy, the initial anterior flow study and subsequent planar views in the anterior and lateral projections demonstrate no appreciable intracerebral blood flow in either the internal carotid or posterior cerebral circulations.

............

............

[<<MENU<<]

ORGANIZATIONS

Safar Center for Resuscitation Research
The Safar Center for Resuscitation Research of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine addresses "resuscitation medicine" in its broadest sense through programs studying traumatic brain injury, cardiopulmonary arrest, hemorrhagic shock and suspended animation...

Center for Neuronal Survival at the Montreal NIH, McGill University
A research group dedicated to the study and promotion of nerve cell survival. Neuroscientists investigate mechanisms of nerve cell death occurring as a result of stroke, epilepsy, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases...

Coma Recovery Association, Inc.
Coma Recovery Association, Inc. is a non-profit support organization for coma and brain injury survivors, family members, friends and professionals...

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
The nation's leading supporter of biomedical research on disorders of the brain and nervous system...

Univesitaetklinik fuer Anaesthesiologie in Heidelberg

Coordinator of the European Resuscitation Council Working Group "Clinical and Experimental Investigation".

Society for Neuroscience
The Society for Neuroscience is a nonprofit membership organization of basic scientists and physicians who study the brain and nervous system. Neuroscience includes the study of brain development, sensation and perception, learning and memory, movement, sleep, stress, aging and neurological and psychiatric disorders...

The George Washington University, Department of Emergency Medicine
The following projects are presently underway.
I. Cerebral Resuscitation/Reanimation
...4. Molecular Mechanisms of Ischemic Brain Injury. R. Rosenthal ...6. Effects of Temperature on Cerebral Ischemia. R. Rosenthal

............

[<<MENU<<]

RELIGIOUS VIEWS ON BRAIN DEATH

Resurrection in religion
...when Jesus returns he will appear in the clouds and souls will be awakened in the graves and all corpses will crawl out of graves like Night of the Living Dead. This doctrine is the traditional concept called the resurrection which is an ancient doctrine which existed long before Jesus was born...

The Brain Death Controversy in Jewish Law
This article will attempt to explain to the general reader: (1) what is "brain death" and how is it clinically determined; (2) some (not all) of the major sources on whether it is an acceptable criterion of death from the standpoint of halacha; (3) a "scorecard" on how contemporary authorities line up; and (4) the halachic and legal ramifications of one view or the other...

............

............

[<<MENU<<]

CRYONICS

Cryonics is the speculative practice of using cold to preserve the life of a terminally ill person who can no longer be supported by ordinary medicine.

Alcor
Alcor Life extension Foundation. In the early part of 2004, Alcor had more than 650 members, and 59 patients in cryopreservation...

The Cryonic Institute
The Cryonics Institute offers cryonic suspension services and information. As soon as possible after legal death, a member patient is prepared and cooled to a temperature where physical decay essentially stops, and is then maintained indefinitely in cryostasis. When and if future medical technology allows, our member patients hope to be healed and revived, and awaken to extended life in youthful good health...

American Cryonics Society
What is Cryonics?
Cryonics is a recently coined word referring to the practice of preserving the whole body, head, or brain, of persons recently declared legally dead, in the hope of revival at some time in the future.

CryoNet
Human cryopreservation (cryonics) is an experimental procedure whereby patients who no longer can be kept alive with today's medical abilities are preserved at low temperature for treatment in the future...

Cryonics Europe
Cryonics Europe is a support and discussion group, based in Sussex, for people in Britain and the rest of Europe who are signed up for cryopreservation or who are considering it...

..........

..........

[<<MENU<<]

NETWORKS RELATED TO BRAIN DEATH

Network for the Definition of Death
This is a very good network related to brain death problem!

Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives
At this site you will find information about the programs, activities, and publications of the Dana Foundation and the Dana Alliance, as well the latest news about the brain...

Websites related to life extension and transhumanity
It's a very interesting network of Charles Tandy, Ph.D. related to life extension problem and cryonics...

Encyclopaedia Britannica

...........

...........

[<<MENU<<]

PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE

Coma and Persistent Vegetative State

International Working Party Report On The Vegetative State - 1996

Medical Aspects of the Persistent Vegetative State

...........

[<<MENU<<]

RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS RELATED TO BRAIN DEATH

Download Acrobat Reader

Cerebral Ischemia and Reperfusion
"Biochemical Mechanism and Tissue Injury of Cerebral Ischemia and Reperfusion", H. Islekel et al...
Although early reperfusion of ischemic tissue is important for the preservation of tissue viability, it is generally accepted that the reintroduction of flow causes the conversion of some reversibly injured cells to a state of irreversible injury...
Very interesting manuscript!!!
Free_Radicals

Hypoxia induces permeability in brain microvessel endothelial cells via VEGF and NO

Brain ischemia and reperfusion activates the eukaryotic initiation factor 2a kinase, PERK

Intravenous administration of MEK inhibitor U0126 affords brain protection against forebrain ischemia and focal cerebral ischemia

Is neuroprotective efficacy of nNOS inhibitor 7-NI dependent on ischemic intracellular pH?

Very interesting data!!!!

Room Air Appears To Do Less Brain Damage Than Pure Oxygen
Fiskum and Rosenthal compared levels of oxidation of brain lipids -- fatty acids and fat-like substances that maintain vital metabolic functions -- in animal models resuscitated after 10 minutes of cardiac arrest. In those given 100 percent oxygen, free-radical levels were significantly higher than in those resuscitated using the oxygen ratio found in room air.
When neurological deficits were measured, the animals resuscitated with 21 percent oxygen showed less brain damage than those resuscitated with 100 percent oxygen, the researchers report.

............