Enzymes in the cerebrospinal fluid in diagnosis of brain death.

The increase of enzymes in the cerebrospinal fluid is shown to indicate an adverse prognosis, with the implication of irreversibility. The massive increase of glutamate-oxaloacetate transaminase and lactate dehydrogenase and the appearance of alkaline phosphatases in a sample of cerebrospinal fluid in which the cytology is normal constitute an easy and reliable test for brain death. The increase in lactate dehydrogenase fraction V and lysozyme in cerebrospinal fluid supports the macrophagic origin of these enzymes.