title: [Sudden infant death syndrome: respiratory causes].
abstract: Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) claims one in five hundred babies between 1 and 12 months of life. Since no cause of death is found at autopsy, SIDS has been and often remains a complete enigma for pediatricians, physiologists and forensic pathologists. However, there is growing evidence from careful epidemiologic, pathologic and physiologic studies that subtle changes occur in those babies for a variable period of time before death. Some of these data are reviewed and interpreted in the light of the sleep apnea-hypoventilation inducing chronic hypoxemia hypothesis. It appears that no single factor is characteristic of, or responsible for, SIDS; rather, a combination of different adverse circumstances occurring during a period of increased vulnerability may cause the fatal outcome in some infants. Some preventive aspects of SIDS in low birth weight babies, siblings of SIDS victims and near-miss SIDS are discussed.
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000150:complications*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013398:Sudden Infant Death / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control
vernacular_title: Le syndrome de mort subite du nourrisson: causes respiratoires.