Cardiorespiratory Sleep Lab

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Flavia Maria Guerra De Sousa Oliveira

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Project Title: Development of circadian rhythmicity of heart rate in infants: potential relevance to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Research Statement:

The objective of this study is to analyze the maturation of a circadian influence upon heart rates in three different sets of infants: American Asian infants, Indonesian infants and Caucasian infants. The recordings consist of R-R interval and heart rate (HR) data from babies 0 to 6 months of age. The goal is to perform a comparative analysis among the heart rate profiles across these three groups of infants to determine if there are significant differences in the observed circadian rhythm. Usually between one and three months babies manifest a nocturnal dip in heart rate. The hypothesis is that Asian infants develop this circadian dip in heart rate later as compared to non-Asian babies. A later onset may be a protective element against SIDS.