Radionuclide cerebral imaging for confirmation of brain death in children: the significance of dural sinus activity.

Radionuclide cerebral imaging revealed no cortical flow, but recorded persistent dural sinus activity in 14 of 55 clinically brain dead children. Of these 14 children, 13 had isoelectric electroencephalograms. Postmortem liquefactive necrosis was present in 7 cases. Although studies that demonstrated the absence of flow were confirmatory of brain death, dural sinus radioactivity in the delayed static images persisted in the presence of brain death.