Future SIDS Victims Show More Frequent Airway Obstruction

Future victims of SIDS, mostly boys, demonstrated more frequent episodes of airway obstruction during a sleep test and showed less decrease in obstructive sleep apnea as they aged than did normal babies.

SIDS is the sudden death of an infant younger than 1 year of age that remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation which includes a complete autopsy, examination of the death scene, and review of the baby's clinical history. In 1998, the problem caused the death of 2,529 babies in the U.S.

In this study, researchers in Belgium, using sleep test results, compared the breathing characteristics of 40 infants who subsequently died of SIDS within days or weeks with those of 607 healthy babies. The children, who were between the ages of 2 and 19 weeks at the time of the sleep laboratory study, were matched by sex and age with the controls. All polygraphic studies were performed using the same standard protocol.

Data from this research showed that episodes of breathing cessation (apneas) did not exceed 15 seconds in the infants. Breathing stoppage was rare in the 607 healthy control infants, but was found significantly more often in the 40 infants who subsequently died of SIDS. Also, the decrease in the frequency of apneic episodes as the babies grew older was smaller in the SIDS infants. The study appears in the second of two October issues of the ATS peer-reviewed American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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