Morphometric investigation of carotid body in sudden infant death syndrome.
BACKGROUND
The pathomechanism of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has not been clarified yet. The high rate of early progenitor cells in carotid body has been reported as a pathognomic feature for SIDS. AIM AND STUDY DESIGN: The morphometric analysis was done by NIKON Eclipse microscope with a morphometric program Lucia G.


METHODS
This study was designed to investigate the structure and developmental state of carotid body in SIDS and non-SIDS cases. A comparison was made between the rates of dark and early progenitor cells.


METHODS
The Kruskal-Wallis test showed a significantly higher number of progenitor cells in the SIDS group than in controls (p=0.0003).


CONCLUSIONS
In this study on Hungarian SIDS cases we confirmed the observation that infants who died suddenly have an underdeveloped carotid body.
Pávai
Z
Z
Department of Anatomy and Embryology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Târgu-Mureş, Romania.
Töro
Klára
K
Keller
Eva
E
Jung
János
J
D002344:Carotid Body / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000473:pathology*; D002423:Cause of Death; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013398:Sudden Infant Death / Q000473:pathology*