Objectives: Familial aggregation of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been shown to be associated with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and apparent life-threatening events (ALTE) in infants. We wanted to determine the incidence of OSA in infants with siblings with ALTE and SIDS referred to our sleep clinic and to ascertain whether OSA was more common in infants who have family histories of SIDS, ALTE, and OSA.
Study design: We studied 125 infants (mean age, 11.5 +/- 0.6 weeks) who were separated into 2 groups on the basis of their family history; polysomnographic studies were performed on each infant.
Results: Twenty infants had a multiple family history of SIDS, ALTE, or OSA (group 1), whereas the other 105 infants (group 2) had only one case of SIDS or ALTE within the family and no known history of OSA. We found that 19 of 20 infants in group 1 had OSA, whereas only 31 of 105 infants in group 2 had OSA (chi-squared analysis, P <.05). The OSA recorded was more frequent in infants of group 1 than in those of group 2. Follow-up studies in some infants with OSA demonstrated a progressive decrease in OSA, which resolved between 6 and 12 months of age.
Conclusion: We conclude that infants of families with multiple histories of SIDS, ALTE, and OSA are more likely to have OSA than infants of families with only one case of SIDS or ALTE.