title: Reduced haemoglobin levels in infants presenting with apparent life-threatening events--a retrospective investigation.
abstract: Anaemia has been shown to be associated with an increased apnoeic pause frequency and with cyanotic breath-holding spells. In this study, the relationship between anaemia and apparent life-threatening events was retrospectively investigated in 72 term infants referred for assessment and home monitoring following an apparent life-threatening event. For 41 infants (25 male, 16 female; 38 Caucasian, three Asian) a venous red blood cell count was available. Their median age at the time of the apparent life-threatening event was 2.0 (0.6-6.7) months. The Hb levels in these 41 infants were plotted against normal data from the literature. Thirty-four infants had Hb levels below the mean, whilst six infants had values above the corresponding normal mean; the one remaining infant had a Hb value identical to the normal mean. Significantly more infants than expected had Hb levels below the mean (p less than 0.001, binomial test). Anaemia may have played a role in the pathophysiology leading to life-threatening events in some of the infants investigated in this study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Clinical Physiology, National Heart & Lung Institute, London, UK.
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Poets
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Samuels
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Wardrop
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Picton-Jones
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Southall
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000740:Anemia / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications*; D001049:Apnea / Q000150:complications*; D015982:Bias; D004906:Erythrocyte Count; D005260:Female; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008131:London / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000150:complications; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013398:Sudden Infant Death / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins