Mixed and obstructive sleep apnea and near miss for sudden infant death syndrome: 2. Comparison of near miss and normal control infants by age.

Twenty-nine full-term near miss for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and 30 normal control infants underwent 24-hour polygraphic monitoring. Several types of respiratory events during sleep (eg, central, mixed, and obstructive apnea, periodic breathing) were defined and tabulated. Analysis of these respiratory variables and comparison of groups of near miss and control infants indicated that between 3 weeks and 4 1/2 months of age only one variable was consistently different at a statistically significant level: the number of mixed and obstructive apnea greater than 3 seconds during total sleep time. This study also showed an increase in mixed and obstructive respiratory events during sleep at 6 weeks of age in control as well as in near miss infants.