Relationship between the Clinical Characteristics and Intervention Scores of Infants with Apparent Life-threatening Events

Choi, Hee Joung; Kim, Yeo Hyang

In previous studies, the causes of ALTE were grouped into gastrointestinal (50%), neurological (30%), respiratory (20%), cardiovascular (5%), metabolic and endocrine (2%-5%), and others such as child abuse (13, 14) . The most common diagnosis was gastrointestinal disease, including GER. Al Khushi et al. (15) reported that the most important diagnoses of ALTE included serious bacterial infections, seizures, child abuse, metabolic disorders, and severe apnea with hypoxemia. Among the infectious causes of ALTE, reported prevalences were about 0%-1.6% for meningitis, 0%-2.5% for bacteremia, 0%-7.6% for urinary tract infection, 0%-10% for lower respiratory tract infection, and 9%-82% for bronchiolitis (5, (16) (17) (18) (19) . About 35%-50% of ALTE cases had no diagnosable cause, despite a medical history and complete evaluation (12, 13) . In contrast to previous studies, the present study showed that the most common discharge diagnosis was respiratory disease, including respiratory infection, followed by neurological disease. Two patients' ALTEs (6.9%) remained unexplained.