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Prenatal cigarette smoke exposure affects infants' cardiorespiratory control

Prenatal cigarette smoke exposure, the main risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), has an adverse effect on spontaneous recovery of breathing pauses and oxygen saturation during hypoxemia in preterm infants, researchers report. Preterm infants are among the most vulnerable groups for SIDS, but the effects of prenatal cigarette smoke exposure and hypoxemia on their cardio-respiratory control have not been investigated, explain Shabih Hasan and colleagues from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Hasan and team recorded cardiorespiratory variables under baseline normoxemic and hypoxemic conditions in 22 spontaneously breathing preterm infants between 28 and 36 weeks' gestation, 12 of whom were born to smokers and 10 of whom were born to nonsmoking mothers. The team found that spontaneous recovery of breathing pauses and oxygen saturation levels were significantly reduced in infants exposed to cigarette smoke compared with the control group during the hypoxemic and post-hypoxemic periods, respectively.

In addition, cigarette-smoke-exposed infants showed a significantly greater increase in heart rate during the hypoxemic challenge period compared with the control infants. "We have shown that as compared with infants of nonsmoking mothers, spontaneous recovery of breathing pauses and oxygen saturation values are adversely affected in cigarette-smoke-exposed infants during the hypoxemic and post-hypoxemic periods, respectively," the authors write. They conclude: "These observations could help explain why these infants are at a particularly high risk for SIDS."

Source: medwire news, 24th June 2008
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