SynthesisAJNR. American journal of neuroradiology2016
Diagnostic Accuracy of Transcranial Doppler for Brain Death Confirmation: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Guideline
- Diagnostic accuracy of ancillary tests for death by neurologic criteria: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthesie · 2023Pooled it
- Brain ultrasonography: methodology, basic and advanced principles and clinical applications. A narrative review.Intensive care medicine · 2019Pooled it
- Death by neurologic criteria: a nuclear medicine approach based on the 2023 AAN/AAP/CNS/SCCM Guideline and 2025 SNMMI Procedure Standard.Pediatric radiology · 2026Review
- Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography as a Complementary Exam in Brain Death Determination: Impact on Protocol Duration and ICU Length of Stay-A Single-Center Study in Brazil.Neurocritical care · 2026Article
- Paediatric and adult neurological point-of-care ultrasound: Review of the evidence, and the UK accreditation pathway.Journal of the Intensive Care Society · 2026Article
- Use of transcranial Doppler to determine brain death or death by neurologic criteria in children: a narrative review.World journal of pediatrics : WJP · 2026Review
- Utility of transcranial Doppler and reversed jugular venous saturations for neuromonitoring in children with acute liver failure.European journal of pediatrics · 2025Observational
- 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography as an adjunctive tool in the diagnosis of brain death/death by neurologic criteria (BD/DNC) with abnormal spinal reflexes: a series of case descriptions.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2025Article
- Is a Second Transcranial Doppler Study Needed to Confirm Neurocirculatory Arrest?Neurocritical care · 2025Article
- Role of a non-invasive multimodal brain monitoring approach in supplementing the clinical diagnosis of brain death: Observations from a case series.Indian journal of anaesthesia · 2025Article
- Challenges in determining death by neurologic criteria in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation - A single center experience.Perfusion · 2024Observational
- Ancillary tests for brain death.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Review
- Measuring brain perfusion by CT or MR as ancillary tests for diagnosis of brain death: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BJR open · 2024Article
- [Prospective investigation of extracranial duplex sonography for the detection of cerebral circulatory arrest in patients with irreversible loss of brain function].Der Nervenarzt · 2023Article
- POCUS, how can we include the brain? An overview.Journal of anesthesia, analgesia and critical care · 2022Review
- Article
- Head to toe ultrasound: a narrative review of experts' recommendations of methodological approaches.Journal of anesthesia, analgesia and critical care · 2022Review
- Optimal duration of the apnea test for determining brain death: Benefit of the short-term apnea test.PloS one · 2022Article
- Exclusive color-coded duplex sonography of extracranial vessels reliably confirms brain death: A prospective study.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
background and purposeTranscranial Doppler is a useful ancillary test for brain death confirmation because it is safe, noninvasive, and done at the bedside. Transcranial Doppler confirms brain death by evaluating cerebral circulatory arrest. Case series studies have generally reported good correlations between transcranial Doppler confirmation of cerebral circulatory arrest and clinical confirmation of brain death. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the utility of transcranial Doppler as an ancillary test in brain death confirmation. MATERIALS AND
methodsWe conducted a systematic review of the literature and a diagnostic test accuracy meta-analysis to compare the sensitivity and specificity of transcranial Doppler confirmation of cerebral circulatory arrest, by using clinical confirmation of brain death as the criterion standard.
resultsWe identified 22 eligible studies (1671 patients total), dating from 1987 to 2014. Pooled sensitivity and specificity estimates from 12 study protocols that reported data for the calculation of both values were 0.90 (95% CI, 0.87-0.92) and 0.98 (95% CI, 0.96-0.99), respectively. Between-study differences in the diagnostic performance of transcranial Doppler were found for both sensitivity (I(2) = 76%; P < .001) and specificity (I(2) = 74.3%; P < .001). The threshold effect was not significant (Spearman r = -0.173; P = .612). The area under the curve with the corresponding standard error (SE) was 0.964 ± 0.018, while index Q test ± SE was estimated at 0.910 ± 0.028.
conclusionsThe results of this meta-analysis suggest that transcranial Doppler is a highly accurate ancillary test for brain death confirmation. However, transcranial Doppler evaluates cerebral circulatory arrest rather than brain stem function, and this limitation needs to be taken into account when interpreting the results of this meta-analysis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.