Franco Patricia, Verheulpen Denis, Valente Filomena, Kelmanson Igor, de Broca Alain, Scaillet Sonia, Groswasser José, Kahn André
Pediatric Sleep Unit, Hôpital Erasme, Brussels, Belgium.
Sleep Med. 2003 Nov;4(6):569-77. doi: 10.1016/s1389-9457(03)00107-2.
Sigh, defined as an isolated breath with an increased tidal volume, can be associated with abrupt changes in heart rate (HR) or blood oxygenation. Sigh may be followed by a central apnea. As impairment of autonomic control was postulated in future SIDS victims, we hypothesized that their autonomic responses to sighs were different from those of healthy control infants.
Sighs followed by central apnea were studied in the sleep recordings of 18 infants who eventually died of SIDS and of 18 control infants. The infants of the two groups were matched for sex, gestational age, postnatal age, weight at birth and sleep position during sleep recording. HR autoregressive power spectral analysis was performed on RR intervals preceding and following sighs.
In all infants, most sighs followed by an apnea were found in NREM sleep. Compared to the control infants, the future SIDS victims were characterized by a greater sympathovagal balance and a lower parasympathetic tonus before the sighs. Following the sighs, no more differences were found in NREM sleep.
Based on the present findings, it can be postulated that sighs contribute to reset autonomic tonus during NREM sleep.
叹息，定义为潮气量增加的单次呼吸，可能与心率（HR）或血氧合的突然变化有关。叹息之后可能会出现中枢性呼吸暂停。由于推测未来的婴儿猝死综合征（SIDS）受害者存在自主神经控制受损的情况，我们假设他们对叹息的自主神经反应与健康对照婴儿不同。
在18例最终死于SIDS的婴儿和18例对照婴儿的睡眠记录中研究叹息后出现的中枢性呼吸暂停。两组婴儿在性别、胎龄、出生后年龄、出生体重以及睡眠记录期间的睡眠姿势方面进行了匹配。对叹息前后的RR间期进行HR自回归功率谱分析。
在所有婴儿中，大多数叹息后出现呼吸暂停的情况发生在非快速眼动（NREM）睡眠中。与对照婴儿相比，未来的SIDS受害者在叹息前表现为交感迷走神经平衡更大且副交感神经张力更低。叹息之后，在NREM睡眠中未发现更多差异。
基于目前的研究结果，可以推测叹息有助于在NREM睡眠期间重置自主神经张力。
