The upper airway and the sudden Infant Death Syndrome

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管最近在预防方面取得了进展，但婴儿猝死综合征（SIDS）仍然是美国一个月至一岁婴儿死亡的最常见原因。一个惊人的流行病学发现是，发现的受害者比预期的要多，往往是俯卧的，脸埋在被子里。在一些国家，鼓励让婴儿仰卧睡觉的运动已经使婴儿猝死综合症的发病率出现了令人满意的下降，但姿势的影响仍然是神秘的。本研究将使用去大脑的新生仔猪来探索俯卧睡眠的风险是由涉及上呼吸道的反射反应决定的可能性，以及这些反应可能因上呼吸道中的CO2而加重的可能性。（来自再呼吸），腹侧髓质异常（这在一些小岛屿发展中国家受害者身上有证据），或者体温升高（有流行病学证据和一项有趣的小狗研究报告）。我们将研究这些条件中的每一个对三种上气道反射反应的影响：“潜水”反应、喉化学反射和对上气道阻塞的负荷补偿反射反应。我们的一般假设是，某些条件和刺激的组合会夸大呼吸的反射中断，可能有助于SIDS的发病机制。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite recent progress in its prevention, the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) remains the most frequent cause of infant mortality between the ages of one month and one year in the United States. A striking epidemiological finding is that more victims than expected are found in the prone position, often with the face in the bedclothes. Campaigns to encourage putting infants to sleep on their backs have led to a gratifying reduction in the incidence of SIDS in several countries, yet the influence of posture remains mysterious. This project will use decerebrate neonatal piglets to explore the possibility that the risk of prone sleeping is determined by reflex responses involving the upper airway, and that these responses may be aggravated by CO2 in the upper airway (from re-breathing), by abnormalities of the ventral medulla (for which there is evidence in some SIDS victims), or from elevated body temperature (for which there is epidemiologic evidence and an intriguing report of a study in puppies). We will examine the influence of each of these conditions on three upper airway reflex responses: the "diving" response, the laryngeal chemo reflex and the load-compensating reflex response to upper airway obstruction. Our general hypothesis is that some combination of conditions and stimuli will exaggerate the reflex interruption of breathing, possibly contributing to the pathogenesis of SIDS.