Approach of Complex Networks for the Determination of Brain Death

Abstract

In clinical practice, brain death is the irreversible end of all brain activity. Compared to current statistical methods for the determination of brain death, we focus on the approach of complex networks for real-world electroencephalography in its determination. Brain functional networks constructed by correlation analysis are derived, and statistical network quantities used for distinguishing the patients in coma or brain death state, such as average strength, clustering coefficient and average path length, are calculated. Numerical results show that the values of network quantities of patients in coma state are larger than those of patients in brain death state. Our findings might provide valuable insights on the determination of brain death.