Arousals of term and preterm infants: lessons learned from polysomnographic studies

Objective: One of the current leading hypotheses to explain SIDS is a failure of the infants to arouse. It was the aim of the present study to find out whether arousals in term infants differ from arousals in preterm infants and whether infants at risk could be identified. Methods: Polygraphic recordings were performed in 81 term (AFD, appropriate for date) and 81 preterm infants (33.2±4.1 weeks gestational age, AFD) and a total number of 469 arousals was scored. Arousals were defined as suggested by the „International Paediatric Work Group on Arousals“ and categorized either as cortical arousals (CA) or subcort…