Maternal smoking and pulmonary neuroendocrine cells in sudden infant death syndrome.

Background: Maternal smoking is a well-recognized risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), but the precise mechanism is unknown. We tested a hypothesis that maternal smoking affects pulmonary neuroendocrine cells (PNECs) and neuroepithelial bodies (NEBs), which are innervated PNEC clusters and presumed airway chemoreceptors.

Methods: Lung sections from infants who died of SIDS and whose mothers smoked during pregnancy (n = 22), infants who died of SIDS and whose mothers were nonsmokers (n = 17), and age-matched control infants (n = 15) who died of other causes were immunostained for bombesin (a PNEC and NEB marker) and assessed morphometrically.

Sudden death in infants under one year of age.

Clinical and postmortem findings on 126 consecutive cases of sudden infant deaths occurring in Metropolitan Toronto over a 42-month period were reviewed and classified. Of these cases, 101 were diagnosed as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the other 25 as due to other causes. The SIDS cases were classified into three groups: A-1 (39%), infants born at term who died between 2 weeks and 6 months of age and in whom clinical and autopsy findings were negative; A-2 (4%), same as A-1, except that the infants were born prematurely (< 36 weeks of gestation); and B (57%), infants with miscellaneous minor clinical and pathological findings not directly related to or responsible for death.

Genetic aspects of immotile cilia syndrome.

The genetics of the immotile cilia syndrome has been analyzed in a series of 46 affected individuals from 38 families. Both sexes were equally affected: there were 20 males and 26 females in this series. All patients had upper and lower respiratory disease with chronic sinusitis, otitis, and chronic cough from early childhood.

Cystic fibrosis in Ontario.

The incidence of cystic fibrosis in Ontario, Canada has been determined from clinical data, from the cystic fibrosis database of the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, and from population statistics in the Province of Ontario. The survey included 420 confirmed cases of cystic fibrosis born during the period 1966-1980. The mean incidence during this period was one in 2,927.