Increased muscularity of the pylmonary circulation in victims of sudden infant death syndrome
Williams, A.; Vawter, G.; Reid, L.
Pediatrics 63(1): 18-23
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0031-4005 PMID: 440797 Document Number: 147834
Some victims of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) are apparently chronically hypoxemic before death. The structural alterations in the pulmonary circulation of 15 victims of SIDS were examined using precise quantitative morphometric techniques applied to the injected and inflated lung. Increased muscularity of the pulmonary circulation was demonstrated, as evidenced by the extension of muscle into arteries not usually muscularized during the 1st year of life, and by an increased thickness of the medial wall in some patients. This confirms the findings of Naeye and justifies the shift of investigative efforts from the events immediately surrounding death to a search for chronic abnormalities.