Crib Death - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

Crib death or sudden infant death syndrome is surely among the worst emotional tragedies that any parent can experience. It is the most frequent death-causing syndrome during the first year of life, striking one infant in every 700-1,000. Crib death is a great enigma, and one of the main open issues in the social-medical and scientific setting of contemporary medicine. Despite a wide spectrum of theories and years of research, its etiology remains unclear. The scarcity of knowledge in the field of crib death and its pathology has led to continued and growing concern, prompting an expanding search for explanation that will permit either prediction or rapid diagnosis.

This book describes systematic studies of the cardiovascular system and autonomic nervous system carried out in a large number of infants, newborns, and fetuses who have died suddenly and unexpectedly, as well as in age-matched control cases. The cardiovascular and neuropathological findings are presented in detail, and the relationship between crib death and unexplained perinatal death is discussed. This monograph will aid pathologists, forensic pathologists, pediatricians, obstetricians, and neonatologists in recognizing all potential morphological substrata. It puts forward a well-researched standardized postmortem protocol to be applied in all cases of sudden unexpected infant and perinatal death.

Zusammenfassung

Crib death or sudden infant death syndrome is the most frequent death-causing syndrome during the first year of life, striking one infant in every 700-1,000. Despite a wide spectrum of theories and years of research, crib death remains a great enigma. This book describes systematic studies of the cardiovascular system and autonomic nervous system carried out in a large number of infants, newborns, and fetuses who have died suddenly and unexpectedly, as well as in age-matched control cases. The cardiovascular and neuropathological findings are presented in detail and the relationship between crib death and unexplained perinatal death is discussed. This monograph will aid pathologists, forensic pathologists, pediatricians, obstetricians and neonatologists in recognizing all potential morphological substrata. It puts forward a well-researched standardized postmortem protocol to be applied in all cases of sudden unexpected infant and perinatal death.

Inhalt

INTRODUCTION.- Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).- Sudden Intrauterine Unexplained Death (SIUD).- MATERIALS AND METHODS.- Clinical and pathological information form.- Post mortem regulation on SIDS.- Necropsy procedures.- Cardiac sampling and study of the conduction system.- Brainstem sampling and inherent techniques.- Study of the carotid bifurcation, ganglia and paraganglia.- Lung: evaluation of the development stage.- Immunohistochemistry and other techniques.- RESULTS.- Epidemiological results.- Cardiac Conduction findings.- Central autonomic nervous system findings.- Hypoplasia and agenesis of the arcuate nucleus.- Combined pulmonary and arcuate nucleus hypoplasia.- Peripheral autonomic nervous system findings.- DISCUSSION.- Cardiac conduction pathology.- Neuropathology.- CONCLUDING REMARKS.