A perspective on SIDS pathogenesis. The hypotheses: plausibility and evidence

Several theories of the underlying mechanisms of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) have been proposed. These theories have born relatively narrow beach-head research programs attracting generous research funding sustained for many years at expense to the public purse. This perspective endeavors to critically examine the evidence and bases of these theories and determine their plausibility; and questions whether or not a safe and reasoned hypothesis lies at their foundation. The Opinion sets specific criteria by asking the following questions: 1. Does the hypothesis take into account the key pathological findings in SIDS? 2. Is the hypothesis congruent with the key epidemiological risk factors? 3. Does it link 1 and 2? Falling short of any one of these answers, by inference, would imply insufficient grounds for a sustainable hypothesis. Some of the hypotheses overlap, for instance, notional respiratory failure may encompass apnea, prone sleep position, and asphyxia which may be seen to be linked to co-sleeping. For the purposes of this paper, each element will be assessed on the above criteria

Advanced signal processing algorithms for cardiorespiratory monitoring in the neonatal intensive care unit

This chapter provides basic principles aimed at understanding advanced engineering and mathematical methods that could potentially provide effective assisting technology in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The included material by no means represents a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art in the field, but purposely travels along a very narrow line in order to offer the reader a specific pathway needed to understand some of the main conceptual and practical steps to be considered from a biomedical engineering point of view. The chapter is organized in compact paragraphs aimed at threading lines guiding the reader through a narrowly selected bibliographic body of knowledge. The selected material is divided in four sections. The first three sections concisely outline the three main research lines and connect the reader to Clinical, Physiological, and Methodological Background respectively. The last fourth section provides a methodological outline of a specific exemplary approach based on a physiological model of heartbeat dynamics defined by using the statistical theory of point processes