Cardiorespiratory patterns during alarms in infants using apnea/bradycardia monitors.

Evaluating the significance of alarms at home in infants monitored for apnea/bradycardia depends on subjective parental observations. Retrospective analysis of 165 event recordings made during alarms in 90 monitored infants indicated that alarms were due to prolonged (greater than 15 s) apnea (6%), bradycardia (14%), shallow breathing (19%), mechanical malfunction (55%), or other causes (6%). Also, 68 infants had pneumograms. Of the 37 infants with an abnormal pneumogram, 14% had an abnormal event recording. Of the 31 infants with a normal pneumogram, 16% had an abnormal event recording. All monitors were discontinued without complication after a negative event recording. It may be concluded that (1) event recordings can document cardiorespiratory patterns during alarms, (2) the majority of alarms occurring at home are not significant, and (3) pneumograms do not appear to indicate which infants are at risk for a future significant alarm.