Computerised audiovisual event recording for infant apnoea and bradycardia

Event recording, by differentiating between true and false events, has adva nced the diagnosis and management of infants on home cardiorespiratory moni tors; however, the pathogenesis of many events remains obscure. To clarify infant behaviours around the time of apnoea/bradycardia alarms, a computeri sed audiovisual event recording system (CAVERS) triggered by the apnoea/bra dycardia recorder, has been developed. The audiovisual recording can begin up to 3 min before the alarm and can continue for up to 3 min after the ala rm. CAVERS information is recorded for a fetal of 65 events in 13 infants. The CAVERS proves most helpful in documenting infant position and the wide variety of behaviours associated with bradycardic events. These behaviours range from sleep or quiet wakefulness to crying and generalised movements. Post-event activity is also highly variable. Interestingly, 20 of 65 events appear to terminate when the infant wakes to the audible monitor alarm. Nu rsing intervention is documented for 14 of 42 bradycardic events but only o ne of 23 apnoeic events. The CAVERS, by elucidating infant behaviours, prov ides information complementary to that given by cardiorespiratory event rec ording. It is suggested that infant monitors of the future should incorpora te both audiovisual and cardiorespiratory data to elucidate optimally appar ent life-threatening events, apnoeas and bradycardias.