Final report of the Polish multicentre study for evaluation of computed tomographic angiography in the diagnosis of brain death

According to Polish brain death (BD) criteria instituted in 2007, confirmatory tests should be used in specific situations such as intoxication, infratentorial processes, extensive facial damage, in children up to one year of age and any case when clinical examination seems to be inadequate. Therefore, finding a confirmatory test, which would be widely available, simple to perform and easy to interpret became of fundamental importance. Computed tomographic angiography (CTA) seemed to be the test of choice for this purpose because new generation of CT scanners became widely available. The method is simple and relatively cheap. Despite of this fact, CTA was not included in Polish BD criteria because of limited expertise and lack of generally accepted criteria. In this situation, after approval of Bioethical Committee we organized Polish national multicentre trial for evaluation of CTA in the diagnosis of BD. CTA is a valuable confirmatory test for BD diagnosis. Polish instruction will be compatible with French protocol published in 2011.