The frequency of apnea and bradycardia in a population of healthy, normal infants.

Twenty-four hour continuous pneumocardiogram recordings were obtained on 250 healthy, normal infants in a hospital nursery on the first to third days of life. 73% of the infants showed no apneic episodes greater than 15 seconds in duration. 5% demonstrated longest apneic episodes greater than 20 seconds in duration with a range up to 32 seconds. 4% showed episodes of periodic breathing and 32% showed bradycardia of less than 80 beats per minute. Subsequent follow-up did not reveal any cases of near miss-SIDS or SIDS. Sustained apnea and periodic breathing appear to be infrequent respiratory patterns in term infants.