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

Choi, Hee Joung; Kim, Yeo Hyang

Many studies have investigated potential predictors of subsequent events in ALTE patients. Some studies identified a history of prematurity and multiple ALTEs as risk factors for a serious underlying condition or poor prognosis (10, 11) . Davies et al. (4) found that more serious diagnosis was associated with a presentation age greater than 2 months, abnormal initial clinical examination, and recurrent ALTE. Mittal et al. (12) reported that 12% of ALTE infants needed significant intervention during hospitalization, and that prematurity, abnormal results from the physical examination, color change to cyanosis, absence of symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection, and absence of choking were all predictors of significant intervention. In order to determine whether to discharge patients from the ED, the authors recommended a clinical decision rule based on components of patient history and examination findings that have been established as significant predictors.