A 47-year-old overweight male with a history of atherosclerosis, diabetes mellit

Question

A 47-year-old overweight male with a history of atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus type 2, and coronary artery disease (CAD) is found by a neighbor unconscious and not breathing in his front lawn where he appears to have been mowing his lawn. He is rushed to a local emergency room where it is determined that he has suffered a massive inferior myocardial infarction. He is sent to the intensive care unit in critical condition where he is placed on advanced life support equipment, and several days later it is determined that he has minimal brain activity. After hearing her husband's condition, his tearful wife asks you how it is possible her husband's brain might not function if it was his heart that stopped beating. How would you answer?

Explanation / Answer

The scientific explanation to this situtation can be provided as below:

Although the brain has stopped working, the brain reserves slight amount of glucose as an energy reserve and can carry out vital functions such as supporting life merely by using this energy. However, since the supply of oxygenated blood rich in nutrients becomes discontinuous secondary to myocardial infarction and acute cessation of coronary circulation, the brain fails to continue aerobic respiration and hence enters the phase of non-metabolic cerebral stroke.

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