Abstract
To detect abnormalities of pulmonary surfactant in SIDS surfactant was lavaged at autopsy from the lungs of 59 infants who died from SIDS, analysed for its phospholipid composition and compared with the composition of surfactant from 39 babies dying from HMD,8 newborn with normal lungs, 9 infants with normal lungs, 8 tracheal aspirates from living adults and 15 from living infants. The percentage phosphatidylcholine (PC) was reduced in SIDS and sphingomyelin(SM) increased as shown meanĀ±sem.
For the individual groups there is some overlap of these parameters. However the ratio of PC:SM is a reasonable differentiator. The 90th centile PC:SM ratio for SIDS is 10. At this level there are 22% newborn, 22% of dead infants, 20% live infants, 13% live adults and 67% HMD. In conclusion the changes in surfactant composition whether pathological or developmental, is such a constant feature of SIDS that it is likely to be a fundamental component of the mechanism that contributes to the sudden death.
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Cj, M., Cm, H., Bd, B. et al. Surfactant and sudden infant death (SIDS). Pediatr Res 18, 801 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198408000-00060
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198408000-00060