SCORING APPROACHES TO THE RECOGNITION OF CASES OF SUDDEN-INFANT-DEATH-SYNDROME

The aim of this study was to create a scoring method to distinguish between sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and cases of sudden death resulting from life-threatening conditions (LTC). Four hundred infants less than one year old who died suddenly out of hospital in St Petersburg between 1983 and 1990 and who underwent a complete autopsy, were entered into the study. In 200 cases, the main diagnosis was SIDS, while in the remaining 200 cases, death was interpreted as resulting from LTC; 115 clinical and 240 morphological signs and symptoms were evaluated in each case. The statistical approach was based on the method of stepwise logistic regression analysis and it helped to identify 6 clinical and 12 morphological signs which, combined, made it possible to distinguish between SIDS and non-SIDS (LTC) cases most accurately.