Home and hospital monitoring for ALTE

Management of Infants with Brief Resolved Unexplained Events (BRUE) and Apparent Life-Threatening Events (ALTE): A RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Approach

Unexpected events of breath, tone, and skin color change in infants are a cause of considerable distress to the caregiver and there is still debate on their appropriate management. The aim of this study is to survey the trend in prevention, decision-making, and management of brief resolved unexplained events (BRUE)/apparent life-threatening events (ALTE) and to develop a shared protocol among hospitals and primary care pediatricians regarding hospital admission criteria, work-up and post-discharge monitoring of patients with BRUE/ALTE. For the study purpose, a panel of 54 experts was selected to achieve consensus using the RAND/UCLA appropriateness method. Twelve scenarios were developed: one addressed to primary prevention of ALTE and BRUE, and 11 focused on hospital management of BRUE and ALTE. For each scenario, participants were asked to rank each option from '1' (extremely inappropriate) to '9' (extremely appropriate). Results derived from panel meeting and discussion showed several points of agreement but also disagreement with different opinion emerged and the need of focused education on some areas. However, by combining previous recommendations with expert opinion, the application of the RAND/UCLA appropriateness permitted us to drive pediatricians to reasoned and informed decisions in term of evaluation, treatment and follow-up of infants with BRUE/ALTE, reducing inappropriate exams and hospitalisation and highlighting priorities for educational interventions.

Apparent Life-Threatening Events (ALTE): Italian guidelines

Five years after the first edition, we have revised and updated the guidelines, re-examining the queries and relative recommendations, expanding the issues addressed with the introduction of a new entity, recently proposed by the American Academy of Pediatrics: BRUE, an acronym for Brief Resolved Unexplained Events. In this manuscript we will use the term BRUE only to refer to mild, idiopathic cases rather than simply replace the acronym ALTE per se.In our guidelines the acronym ALTE is used for severe cases that are unexplainable after the first and second level examinations.Although the term ALTE can be used to describe the common symptoms at the onset, whenever the aetiology is ascertained, the final diagnosis may be better specified as seizures, gastroesophageal reflux, infection, arrhythmia, etc. Lastly, we have addressed the emerging problem of the so-called Sudden Unexpected Postnatal Collapse (SUPC), that might be considered as a severe ALTE occurring in the first week of life.

Apparent life-threatening event in infancy

An apparent life-threatening event (ALTE) is defined as the combination of clinical presentations such as apnea, marked change in skin and muscle tone, gagging, or choking. It is a frightening event, and it predominantly occurs during infancy at a mean age of 1–3 months. The causes of ALTE are categorized into problems that are: gastrointestinal (50%), neurological (30%), respiratory (20%), cardiovascular (5%), metabolic and endocrine (2%–5%), or others such as child abuse. Up to 50% of ALTEs are idiopathic, where the cause cannot be diagnosed. Infants with an ALTE are often asymptomatic at hospital and there is no standard workup protocol for ALTE. Therefore, a detailed initial history and physical examination are important to determine the extent of the medical evaluation and treatment. Regardless of the cause of an ALTE, all infants with an ALTE should require hospitalization and continuous cardiorespiratory monitoring and evaluation for at least 24 hours. The natural course of ALTEs has seemed benign, and the outcome is generally associated with the affected infants' underlying disease. In conclusion, systemic diagnostic evaluation and adequate treatment increases the survival and quality of life for most affected infants.

The role of physiological studies and apnoea monitoring in infants

There is evidence that failure of cardio-respiratory control mechanisms plays a role in the final event of the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Physiological studies during sleep in both healthy term born infants and those at increased risk for SIDS have been widely used to investigate how the major risk and protective factors for SIDS identified from epidemiological studies might alter infant physiology. Clinical polysomnography (PSG) in infants who eventually succumbed to SIDS however demonstrated abnormalities that were neither sufficiently distinctive nor predictive to support routine use of PSG for infants at risk for SIDS. PSG findings have also been shown to be not predictive of recurrence of Apparent Life Threatening Events (ALTE) and thus international guidelines state that PSG is not indicated for routine evaluation in infants with an uncomplicated ALTE, although PSG may be indicated when there is clinical evidence of a sleep related breathing disorder. A decision to undertake home apnoea monitoring should consider the potential advantages and disadvantages of monitoring for that individual, in the knowledge that there is no evidence of the efficacy of such devices in preventing SIDS.

Apparent life-threatening events: assessment, risks, reality

Apparent life-threatening events (ALTEs), because of their prevalence as well as their potential to hide serious diseases and consume significant medical resources, remain a challenge for physicians caring for infants. In this review, we focused on the assessment of the well-appearing infant for the most serious diagnoses, namely serious bacterial infections, seizure disorders, child abuse, metabolic disorders and severe apnoea with hypoxemia. Our extensive review of the literature has highlighted the difficulties physicians are facing in this evaluation, especially for the youngest infants (aged less than 2 months). Large-scale prospective studies are needed to identify risk factors and to guide physicians as to who should be investigated and the minimal investigation needed to avoid missing such conditions as serious bacterial infection, abusive head injury or repeated severe cardiorespiratory events. While infants with severe forms of metabolic disorders typically present with evident signs and symptoms, less severe forms of metabolic disorders, seizure disorders, and some forms of child abuse will often be diagnosed only when recurrent events are investigated.

Surveillance study of apparent life-threatening events (ALTE) in the Netherlands

SIDS and ALTE are different entities that somehow show some similarities. Both constitute heterogeneous conditions. The Netherlands is a low-incidence country for SIDS. To study whether the same would hold for ALTE, we studied the incidence, etiology, and current treatment of ALTE in The Netherlands. Using the Dutch Pediatric Surveillance Unit, pediatricians working in second- and third-level hospitals in the Netherlands were asked to report any case of ALTE presented in their hospital from January 2002 to January 2003. A questionnaire was subsequently sent to collect personal data, data on pregnancy and birth, condition preceding the incident, the incident itself, condition after the incident, investigations performed, monitoring or treatment initiated during admission, any diagnosis made at discharge, and treatment or parental support offered after discharge. A total of 115 cases of ALTE were reported, of which 110 questionnaires were filled in and returned (response rate 97%). Based on the national birth rate of 200,000, the incidence of ALTE amounted 0.58/1,000 live born infants. No deaths occurred. Clinical diagnoses could be assessed in 58.2%. Most frequent diagnoses were (percentages of the total of 110 cases) gastro-esophageal reflux and respiratory tract infection (37.3% and 8.2%, respectively); main symptoms were change of color and muscle tone, choking, and gagging. The differences in diagnoses are heterogeneous. In 34%, parents shook their infants, which is alarmingly high. Pre- and postmature infants were overrepresented in this survey (29.5% and 8.2%, respectively). Ten percent had recurrent ALTE. In total, 15.5% of the infants were discharged with a home monitor. In conclusion, ALTE has a low incidence in second- and third-level hospitals in the Netherlands. Parents should be systematically informed about the possible devastating effects of shaking an infant. Careful history taking and targeted additional investigations are of utmost importance.

Heart rate variability during REM and non-REM sleep in preterm neonates with and without abnormal cardiorespiratory events

AIM

Analyse heart rate variability (HRV) of preterm neonates undergoing a polysomnography in relation to the occurrence of abnormal cardiorespiratory events on one hand and the type of sleep states on the other hand.

METHODS

To quantify nonlinear HRV, the numerical noise titration technique is used, adapted to neonatal heart rate data. HRV is calculated for 30 preterm neonates with mean post-conceptional age of 36.4weeks, divided into three groups according to the occurrence of abnormal events during the polysomnographies and the eventual home monitoring.

RESULTS

Periods of non-REM sleep have lower noise limit values and can be distinguished significantly from periods of REM sleep and from the total recording period. The presence of abnormal events does not influence this finding. Significant differences between groups are only found during non-REM segments by means of the noise limit value computed via numerical noise titration while the linear HRV parameters were not able to discriminate.

CONCLUSION

ECG measurement of a relatively short non-REM sleep period without specific abnormal events is sufficient to define a mature cardiorespiratory pattern in preterm infants.