Sleeping position and upper airways bacterial flora: relevance to cot death.
Open Access
- 1 February 1996
- journal article
- research article
- Published by BMJ in Journal of Clinical Pathology
- Vol. 49 (2) , 170-172
- https://doi.org/10.1136/jcp.49.2.170
Abstract
The hypothesis that the prone sleeping position is associated with accumulation of upper airways secretions and increased bacterial growth was investigated in adults. Ten subjects with upper respiratory tract infection lay prone for one hour and then supine for one hour. Nasal swabs after the prone period yielded higher bacterial counts than swabs obtained after the supine period. This result could be relevant to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), as infants who sleep in the prone position are at increased risk of SIDS and one theory is that death is caused by toxins produced by bacterial overgrowth in the upper respiratory tract following a viral infection.Keywords
This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit:
- Factors Potentiating the Risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Associated with the Prone PositionNew England Journal of Medicine, 1993
- Bacterial toxins: a possible cause of cot death.Journal of Clinical Pathology, 1992
- A review of epidemiological studies of sudden infant death syndrome in Southern New ZealandJournal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 1991
- Interaction between bedding and sleeping position in the sudden infant death syndrome: a population based case-control study.BMJ, 1990
- Choice of sleeping position for infants: possible association with cot death.Archives of Disease in Childhood, 1990
- Sudden infant death syndrome.1989
- The nasopharyngeal bacterial flora in the sudden infant death syndromeJournal of Infection, 1989
- SLEEPING POSITION AND INFANT BEDDING MAY PREDISPOSE TO HYPERTHERMIA AND THE SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROMEThe Lancet, 1988
- Hypothesis: Common bacterial toxins are a possible cause of the sudden infant death syndromeMedical Hypotheses, 1987