PEDIATRICS Vol. 39 No. 1 January 1967, pp. 43-48
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Geertinger, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Geertinger, P.

SUDDEN, UNEXPECTED DEATH IN INFANCY

With Special Reference to the Parathyroids

Preben Geertinger M.D.1

1 Institute of Forensic Medicine, Göteborg, Sweden

THE PROBLEM of sudden, unexpected death in infancy (SUD) has become increasingly important in recent years in forensic medicine. Mortality in infancy from well defined causes has rapidly decreased, and the proportion of SUD of unknown cause has, therefore, been still more evident. Today SUD cannot be considered a problem for forensic medicine only; many other branches of medicine have an interest in this problem.

In the past SUD has been attributed to suffocation by overlaying, by aspiration of vomitus, or by bedclothes. During the last 10 years it has widely been presumed that SUD is due to an overwhelming viral infection. Although much effort has been spent in an attempt to demonstrate the possible viral agent, the results have mainly been negative. Hypogammaglobulinemia as a possible cause of SUD was indicated by Harboe and Gormsen, and more recently it was suggested that SUD results from an anaphylatic reaction to cow's milk inhaled into the larynx or trachea. Many authors have pointed out that SUD might be connected with rickets or some more obscure kind of disorder in the calcium metabolism, and in 1962 Maresch demonstrated a significantly low content of calcium in heart musculature in these infants and presumed that one and the same basal disorder of metabolism might lead to rickets and spasmophilia as well as to SUD.

However different the theories, two facts seem to be generally accepted by all authors in this field. Nearly all claim that SUD is significantly most frequent at the age of about 3 to 4 months.

Submitted on February 14, 1966
Accepted on June 13, 1966