Aetiology of ALTEs (with comparison to previous work)
| Study | Total patients | Patients pre-selected | Study design | Mean age (weeks) | Deaths (%) | Aetiology of ALTE (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GOR, gastro-oesophageal reflux; LRTI, lower respiratory tract infection; UTI, urinary tract infection; Fact, factitious illness; PDA, patent ductus arteriosus; CHD, congenital heart disease; SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome. | ||||||
| *Abnormal pneumogram; †SIDS; ‡GOR; §one homocystinuria, one apparent overwhelming viral infection. | ||||||
| Current study | 65 | No | Prospective | 7 | 0 | Unknown (23), GOR (25), Pertussis (9), Other LRTI (9), Seizures (9), UTI (8), Fact (3), Hypocalcaemia (1.5), Brain tumour (1.5), Opoid (1.5), Airway (1.5), SVT (1.5), PDA (1.5), gastroenterits (1.5) |
| Kahn4 | 3799 | Yes | Prospective | 12.8 | ? | Unknown (38), GOR (20), LRTI (7), Seizures (4), Fact (0.2), Hypocalcaemia (0.3), Other metabolic(1.2), Drug effect (0.2), Airway (2), Arrhythmia (0.5), CHD (0.3) |
| Rahilly5 | 340 | Yes | Prospective | 5 | 1* | Unknown (15), GOR (62), Seizures (8), Fact (1.5), Hypoglycaemia (0.6), Abnormal pneumogram (8), Brain tumour (0.5), Airway (5), Oculocardiac reflex (0.9) |
| Ariagno3 | 306 | Yes | Retrospec (casenotes) | 7.5 | 1† | Unknown (51). Did not comment on others |
| Dunne6 | 132 | Yes | Retrospec (casenotes) | 9 | 2† | Excluded infants with known cause |
| Gray2 | 130 | No | Retrospec (casenotes) | 9 | 0 | Unknown (26), GOR (18), Seizures (25), Pertussis (6), Other LRTI (6), Airway (0.8) |
| Veereman-Wauters7 | 130 | No | Retrospec (casenotes) | Range 2–36 | 2‡ | Unknown (42), GOR (26), Seizures (4), Metabolic (1.5), Airway (9), Drug effect (5) |
| Duffty8 | 72 | Yes | Prospective | 9 | 0 | Excluded infants with known cause |
| Wennergren9 | 34 | Yes | Prospective | 8 | 0 | Seizures (9) |
| Tirosh10 | 23 | Yes | Prospective | 30 | 9§ | Unknown (43). 11 (48%) pathological polysomnographic studies. GOR (30); 1 case of SVT, 1 epilepsy, 1 LRTI. |