Movement and gastroesophageal reflux in awake term infants with "near miss" SIDS, unrelated to apnea

Abstract

Forty-five term infants who had a "near miss" for SIDS were studied with a continuous overnight polygraphic recording of endoesophageal pH, respiration, and ECG. Recordings were examined for occurrences of GER and for central apnea of 10 seconds or greater duration. There were 341 apneic events greater than or equal to 10 seconds recorded in 46 studies, with a mean of 7 +/- 7. In 91% of the infants, no apneas exceeded 15 seconds. Only 31 episodes of apnea greater than or equal to 10 seconds occurred during GER: in two of these episodes the apneic event was greater than or equal to 15 seconds. Twenty-four of the 31 apneas greater than or equal to 10 seconds during periods of pH less than 4 occurred in one infant. A total of 356 precipitous pH drops was recorded (mean 8.7 +/- 7.4). The pH drops occurred most frequently when the patient appeared to be awake (73%), and in 84% of events there was movement before and during the pH change. We conclude that the majority of these near miss SIDS infants had GER associated with movement during awake periods, without any temporal relationship to apnea. Although reflex apnea following GER may be seen in some term infants, this problem may be more significant for the immature infant.