SEASONAL DISTRIBUTION OF INFANTS WITH APPARENT LIFE THREATENING EPISODES (ALTE)

Abstract

The seasonal distribution of SIDS occurrences with an increase in winter months is an epidemiologic marker, typical of SIDS populations. We therefore studied the seasonal distribution of apparent life threatening episodes (ALTE), with the hypothesis that if ALTE cases are closely related to SIDS, their seasonal distribution should follow closely the seasonal distribution of SIDS. Infants with ALTE, admitted to 14 apnea centers throughout the state of New York, were entered into a state-wide collaborative study. A total of 759 infants in whom birth date and date of ALTE were provided were included. All patients were between 2 weeks and 12 months of age. The mean age of the infants was 2.7±2.1 months, 509 cases were under 3 months of age and 250 cases were over 3 months of age. The monthly distribution of ALTE in our study and of SIDS cases previously reported in the literature were as follows: Our results show that ALTE infants do not show the seasonal distribution typical of SIDS cases. When compared to the seasonal distribution of SIDS cases available in the literature, the seasonal distribution of the two groups was different (p=.0082). Our data show that although ALTE was reported in infants similar in age to SIDS cases, infants with ALTE do not have a similar seasonal distribution to infants with SIDS.