The 1992 “Back to Sleep” campaign identified modifiable environmental risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and led to a decrease in SIDS incidence from 1.2 per 1000 live births (1) to 0.529 per 1000 live births in 2003 (2). Despite this decline, African-American infants have a 2.7-fold higher SIDS rate than Caucasian infants (2). This ethnic disparity, coupled with SIDS deaths despite improved compliance with modifiable risk factors, led investigators to consider a genetic basis for SIDS. Thus far, all genetic studies have been based on clinical, neuropathological, and epidemiological observations in SIDS victims, with subsequent identification and study of candidate genes. This chapter focuses exclusively on those genes that are pertinent to cardiorespiratory or autonomic regulation.
|Original language||English (US)|
|Title of host publication||Sleep and Breathing in Children|
|Subtitle of host publication||Developmental Changes in Breathing During Sleep, Second Edition|
|Number of pages||90|
|Publication status||Published - Jan 1 2008|
ASJC Scopus subject areas