Abstract
Despite widespread use of cardio-respiratory polygraphs to screen infants at high risk for SIDS, analysis for apnea frequency and periodic breathing often fails to find abnormalities in high risk infants, even those who subsequently die. The possibility that abnormal cardio-respiratory control might alter the frequency spectrum of heartrate (HR) and respiratory (resp.) pattern led us to study prospectively 14 infants at risk for SIDS (7 near miss, 7 siblings) ages 7.0 ± 3.4 wks. Two healthy comparison groups were used: 14 infants aged 12.2 ± 3.4 wks. and 10 other aged 0.6 ± .6 wks. All infants are alive at six months.
Infants were studied in hospital during daytime naps, with recording of heartrate, strain gauge respirogram and sleep state. Power spectra were computed for HR and resp. during quiet sleep for analysis of peaks at the resp. frequency (RF) and at low frequency (LF) (,05–.15Hz) previously described (J. Physiol. 285:85, 1978, Can J. Physiol. 61:329, 1983).
We found no significant difference in RF or LF amplitude or frequency for either HR or resp., between high risk and controls:
CONCLUSION: Spectral analysis does not discriminate between high risk and normal groups, although our groups were small. Age variations in the spectra were not significant in normals.
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Finley, J., Nugent, S. & Goldbloom, R. 1759 CAN SPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF POLYGRAPHS DISTINGUISH HIGH RISK FOR SIDS FROM NORMAL INFANTS?. Pediatr Res 19, 404 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198504000-01777
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198504000-01777
