The Continuing Mystery of SIDS

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The Continuing Mystery of SIDS

Sudden infant death syndrome ( SIDS) is the greatest cause of infant deaths ranging from ages one month to one year. Most of these deaths occur before the age of six months. Normally, any unexplainable infant death is considered to be due to SIDS. Numerous attempts have been made to discover the exact cause of this syndrome. However,the only known pathology is that SIDS is due to a dysfunction or abnormality in the cardiac and/or respiratory systems. To this point, an exact and definite cause has not been named. This paper will attempt to present several of the proposed and hypothesized causes of SIDS.

First of all, it is necessary to understand some of the important features of this syndrome (Naeye, 1976). As mentioned initially, SIDS deaths occur in infants ages one month to one year. Also, 90% to 95% of these infants die during sleep, and most of these deaths are silent. One-third to one-half of the SIDS victims have been found to have a mild infection (normally respiratory in nature) prior to death. SIDS has also been found to be in part associated with a low socioeconomic status, and it is more common among non-whites. Although SIDS seems to be associated with a low socioeconomic status, SIDS is not caused by malnutrition. A more recent article also reported that more male infants were victims of SIDS than females ( Becker 361 ). Finally, SIDS has been more often associated with prematurely born infants. This seems to suggest that developmental immaturity may present a likely situation for the development of SIDS. Each of these characteristics must be considered when forming hypotheses for the possible cause of SIDS.

Initially, research on SIDS centered around the performance of an...

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...Gliosis and Vasculature": Annals of Neurology,

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