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. 2008 Dec;31(12):1691-9.
doi: 10.1093/sleep/31.12.1691.

QT interval prolongation in future SIDS victims: a polysomnographic study

Patricia Franco  1 , José Groswasser, Sonia Scaillet, Jean-Pol Lanquart, Abraham Benatar, Jean-Pierre Sastre, Philippe Chevalier, Béatrice Kugener, André Kahn, Jian-Sheng Lin
Affiliations

QT interval prolongation in future SIDS victims: a polysomnographic study

Patricia Franco et al. Sleep. 2008 Dec.

Abstract

Objective: Previous data have suggested that a prolonged QTc interval during the first days of life can be associated with some cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Analysis of heart rate variability during sleep in future SIDS victims has shown findings compatible with an imbalance in autonomic tone. We hypothesized that some future SIDS infants could have longer QTc intervals during sleep, compared with healthy control infants, and that this difference would correlate with the autonomic imbalance already found in these infants.

Methods: QTc intervals and a heart rate autoregressive power spectral analysis were calculated during the same periods in the polysomnographic sleep recordings of 18 infants who eventually died of SIDS and of 18 control infants. The control infants were matched for sex, gestational age, postnatal age, birth weight, and sleep position. The median postnatal age was 8 weeks.

Results: Compared with control infants, future SIDS victims were characterized by having longer QTc intervals during total sleep (P = 0.019), rapid eye movement sleep (P = 0.045) and non-rapid eye movement sleep (P = 0.029). When the night was divided into 3 equal parts, this difference was always present but was most marked during the last part of the night. There was, respectively, a negative and a positive correlation between parasympathetic activity and sympathovagal balance and median and maximum QTc interval values.

Conclusion: Compared with QTc intervals in matched control infants, QTc intervals were increased in future SIDS victims. Such a prolongation could be related to the autonomic dysfunction already reported in these patients.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Nycthemeral variations of median QTc values in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and matched control infants. ★Statistically significant. The figures represent median values.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Individual noncorrected median and max QT values presented according to their heart rate values in total sleep time, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and rapid eye movement
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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