Objective. Little is known about the mechanism of death during sudden infant death. To
study the mechanism, we obtained data on six infants who died while on a memory-
equipped cardiorespiratory monitor. Methods. Waveforms of respiration and heart rate trend
were available for five infants; an alarm log only was available for the sixth. These printouts
were reviewed with attention to mechanism and time to death. Results. All infants were born
prematurely; autopsies reported the cause of death as sudden infant death syndrome in …