title: Observation of movements during sleep in ALTE (apparent life threatening event) and apnoeic infants--a pilot study.
abstract: Fourteen infants of 2 months or 6 months of age were video-recorded during polysomnography. Four were normal infants, five had a history of ALTE (apparent life threatening event) and five had repeated and prolonged apnoea during sleep. Two ALTE infants have been recorded at 2 months as well as at 6 months of age. Movements during sleep could be classified into general movements, isolated movements of the upper extremity, startles, head rotations, and trunk rotations. In the ALTE cases at 2 months of age, the motility was quantitatively not different from the control infants but was markedly reduced at 6 months of age. (All cases had their event before 8 weeks of age.) In contrast to these findings, infants with repeated apnoea did not show a clear change in the quantity of their movements. With the exception of one ALTE case at 2 months, all observed cases of ALTE and apnoeic infants showed an abnormal quality of their spontaneous movements during sleep. As reported in a previous study, all these cases had also been found moving abnormally during wakefulness. It is suggested that the abnormal motility is a sequelae of the event (ALTE or repeated apnoeas) with as a consequence, an impairment of neural functions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Karl-Franzens-University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Einspieler
authors.forename: H F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Prechtl
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: van Eykern
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: de Roos
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004576:Electromyography; D004585:Electrooculography; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009068:Movement; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012119:Respiration; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology; D014741:Video Recording