Brain death: the Asian perspective.

Asia is the largest and most populous continent in the world with people from many diverse ethnic groups, religions and government systems. The authors surveyed 14 countries accounting for the majority of Asia's population and found that, although the concept of brain death is widely accepted, there is wide variability in the criteria for certification. Although most Asian countries have adopted the "whole-brain" concept of brain death, most countries with past colonial links to the United Kingdom follow the UK "brainstem" concept of brain death.

Detection of internal carotid artery stenosis with duplex velocity criteria using receiver operating characteristic analysis.

Introduction: Duplex ultrasonography is an excellent non-invasive screening tool for carotid artery stenosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate optimal ultrasonographic criteria for determination of internal carotid artery stenosis with reference to digital subtraction angiography.

Materials And Methods: From January 1995 to December 2003, 114 symptomatic patients underwent both duplex ultrasonography and angiography.

Ventilatory care in myasthenia gravis crisis: assessing the baseline adverse event rate.

Objective: Myasthenic patients who require mechanical ventilation often develop pneumonia or atelectasis. Although there are differences in the prevalence of these complications among various institutions, there is no evidence that aggressive treatment shortens the course of the myasthenic crisis. We have quantified the severity of lung injury and aggressiveness of respiratory intervention in myasthenic patients admitted to the neuro-critical care unit.