Prolonged expiratory apnoea (cyanotic 'breath-holding') in association with a medullary tumour.

From the age of four months to his sudden, unexpected death at 2 years 11 months, a child had severe cyanotic episodes attributed to cyanotic 'breath-holding' (prolonged expiratory apnoea). At postmortem he was found to have a previously undiagnosed gangliocytoma of the medulla, which had invaded the floor of the fourth ventricle and variably affected the 7th to 12th cranial-nerve nuclei.