Staff Neonatologist, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California. Apnea - Cessation of respiratory air flow. Periodic Breathing - A breathing pattern in which there are three or more respiratory pauses of greater than 3 seconds' duration with less than 20 seconds of respiration between pauses.
Periodic breathing can be a normal event.
Apnea of Prematurity - Periodic breathing with pathologic apnea in a premature infant. Apnea of prematurity usually resolves by the time the infant is 34 to 36 weeks' gestational age. Apnea in premature infants can result in a failure of the mechanisms that protect cerebral blood flow resulting in ischemia and eventually leukomalacia. Postnatal exposure to sedatives, hypnotics or narcotics. In other words, there is no signal to breathe being transmitted from the central nervous system to the respiratory muscles.