OBSERVATION OF MOVEMENTS DURING SLEEP IN ALTE (APPARENT LIFE-THREATENING EVENT) AND APNEIC INFANTS - A PILOT-STUDY

Fourteen infants of 2 months or 6 months of age were video-recorded du ring polysomnography. Four were normal infants, five had a history of ALTE (apparent life threatening event) and five had repeated and prolo nged apnoea during sleep. Two ALTE infants have been recorded at 2 mon ths as well as at 6 months of age. Movements during sleep could be cla ssified into general movements, isolated movements of the upper extrem ity, 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 fi ndings, infants with repeated apnoea did not show a clear change in th e quantity of their movements. With the exception of one ALTE case at 2 months, all observed cases of ALTE and apnoeic infants showed an abn ormal quality of their spontaneous movements during sleep. As reported in a previous study [3], all these cases had also been found moving a bnormally during wakefulness. It is suggested that the abnormal motili ty is a sequelae of the event (ALTE or repeated apnoeas) with as a con sequence, an impairment of neural functions.