Waite S P, Thoman E B
Sleep. 1981;4(1):61-9. doi: 10.1093/sleep/4.1.61.
Studies of apnea in newborns often disregard the frequent occurrence of brief respiratory pauses during sleep. Several investigators have reported an association between the occurrence of brief apneas and subsequent respiratory dysfunction. The present study was undertaken to determine whether the incidence of brief and long apneas is consistent within the individual neonate. This question was posed separately for active and quiet sleep, in order to compare apnea patterns in these two sleep states. Behavioral states and respiration during sleep were continuously monitored in 27 full-term, normal infants on weeks 1-5 postnatally. The first observation took place in the hospital and lasted 3 hr. The remaining observations were conducted for 7 hr in the home. Respiratory pauses of 2 sec or greater were identified and analyzed in terms of rate per hour, mean length, and longest episode in both quiet and active sleep. The distribution of apnea by duration was analyzed for each sleep state. Apnea rates determined separately for brief pauses (2-5 sec) and episodes of longer duration (6-16 sec) were positively correlated on all observations in both active and quiet sleep. The magnitude of the correlation decreased slightly with age in active sleep, whereas in quiet sleep, the association progressively increased. The implications of these findings for the reliable assessment of respiratory instability in the newborn are discussed.
对新生儿呼吸暂停的研究常常忽略睡眠期间频繁出现的短暂呼吸暂停。几位研究者报告了短暂呼吸暂停的发生与随后的呼吸功能障碍之间的关联。本研究旨在确定短暂和长时间呼吸暂停的发生率在个体新生儿中是否一致。这个问题针对主动睡眠和安静睡眠分别提出，以便比较这两种睡眠状态下的呼吸暂停模式。对27名足月正常婴儿在出生后第1至5周进行了睡眠期间行为状态和呼吸的连续监测。首次观察在医院进行，持续3小时。其余观察在家庭中进行，持续7小时。确定并分析了安静和主动睡眠中持续2秒或更长时间的呼吸暂停，分析指标包括每小时发生率、平均时长和最长发作时间。分析了每种睡眠状态下呼吸暂停按持续时间的分布情况。在主动睡眠和安静睡眠的所有观察中，分别针对短暂暂停（2 - 5秒）和较长持续时间发作（6 - 16秒）确定的呼吸暂停发生率呈正相关。在主动睡眠中，相关性的程度随年龄略有下降，而在安静睡眠中，这种关联逐渐增加。讨论了这些发现对可靠评估新生儿呼吸不稳定的意义。
