Pathology and biochemistry of the central nervous system in sudden infant death syndrome: a short review

An assessment of behavioural characteristics in infants who died of sudden infant death syndrome using the Early Infancy Temperament Questionnaire

An assessment of the behavioural peculiarities of infants dying of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) was carried out using the Early Infancy Temperament Questionnaire (EITQ). Thirty-six infants (25 boys and 11 girls aged 1-4 months) in whom the diagnosis of SIDS was confirmed by full necropsy and who died in St Petersburg from 1990 to 1992 entered the study, and the families were approached contemporaneously. A control group consisted of an equal number of age, sex, geographic distribution and date of birth matched live infants from the same city. The infants who died of SIDS had significantly lower estimates of activity in comparison with the babies from the control group. Behavioural defects may be a contributory factor and a sign of increased risk in some babies presenting with SIDS.

Autopsies of sudden infant death syndrome--classification and epidemiology

An enquiry into sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in 1987 furnished us with detailed epidemiological data for 281 cases that underwent a thorough post-mortem examination. This analysis uses these data to evaluate the role the autopsy plays in explaining sudden death. The cases were classified into three diagnostic groups: explained causes of death (group 1), unexplained deaths with anomalies (group 2), and no anomaly (group 3). These 281 cases show the three essential features that characterize SIDS: over-representation of males, increased deaths during the second and third months of life, and increased deaths during winter. The autopsy examination revealed that many of these deaths had a medical explanation. Almost half were assigned to group 1. At the time of autopsy, no precise pathology could be diagnosed for 147 deaths; of these, 140 showed histological anomalies. There were only seven sudden deaths for which no abnormal sign was evident at the autopsy. These results are compared with those of similar studies and discussed in connection with three factors: the initial selection of cases, the nature and degree of the investigations, and the possible interpretations of the symptoms uncovered.