Rebreathing expired gases from bedding: a cause of cot death?

Rebreathing expired gases from bedding: a cause of cot death?

The reported association of cot death and sleeping prone could be due to rebreathing of expired gases. A mechanical model simulating the respiratory system of an infant, exhaling warm humidified air with an end tidal carbon dioxide of 5%, has been used to investigate this. Some commonly used bedding materials caused an accumulation of carbon dioxide of 7% to over 10% with the model lying face d...

Breathing expired gases from bedding .

lation cannot arise. We welcome the authors' recommendation that growth problems be identified at an early age in a community height screening programme. Once screening has been carried out on initial height however, there is little to be gained from waiting a year and screening on velocity using the 25th centile as a cut off, as in the Oxford study. First, the normal short child, on the third ...

Bacterial toxins: a possible cause of cot death.

AIM To test the hypothesis that sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) may be caused by toxins of commonly occurring bacteria in infants lacking developed immunity. METHODS Nasopharyngeal microbial isolates from 22 pairs of SIDS cases and healthy infants matched for age (by month), sex, and sampling time (by month) were compared for lethal toxigenicity. Crude toxin preparations were made from is...

Recent theories on the cause of cot death.

Mechanical model testing of rebreathing potential in infant bedding materials.

Rebreathing of expired air may be a lethal hazard for prone sleeping infants. This paper describes a mechanical model to simulate infant breathing, and examines the effects of bedding on exhaled air retention. Under simulated rebreathing conditions, the model allows the monitoring of raised carbon dioxide (CO2) inside an artificial lung-trachea system. Resulting levels of CO2 (although probably...