COTTON PJS BETTER THAN T-SHIRTS FOR KIDS' SLEEPWEAR.

Byline: - Daily News Staff and Wire Services

Sleeping in oversize T-shirts could create a firetrap for children, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warns.

But snug-fitting cotton pajamas, previously considered dangerous, should be OK.

Until this year, the agency advised the public that flame-resistant pajamas were the only safe garments children should wear to bed. However, those standards were relaxed this year, after the commission decided that the way pajamas fit is more important than the fabric they're made of.

``By fitting close to the skin, you don't have oxygen underneath that feeds the fire,'' said Ken Giles, a commission spokesman.

Cotton was one fabric the commission used to warn against, because it can burn rapidly. But Giles said that is not the case if the cotton garment is tight.

``We don't have any burn injuries with snug-fitting cotton,'' he said.

Because of the new regulations, manufacturers have begun using new tags on snug-fitting sleepers, indicating they meet federal safety standards.

An instrumental diagnosis: A new device may help emergency-room physicians weed out the true heart-attack cases among the 6 million Americans who rush to the ER with chest pain each year.

In a study of nearly 11,000 patients with possible heart attacks in 10 U.S. hospitals, the predictive instrument - called the ACI-TIPI - decreased hospital unnecessary hospital admissions from 6 percent to 100 percent, depending on the institution, researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Designed to supplement the conventional electrocardiogram (EKG) - a record of the heart muscle's electrical activity - the ACI-TIPI helps doctors and nurses calculate a patient's probability of suffering a heart attack, using information on symptoms and the patient's age and sex.

Sibling documentary: If you have a brother or sister, the British Broadcasting Corp. may be looking for you.

The BBC is producing a documentary to address the debate over whether birth order determines the course of people's lives.

Some statistics sure seem to support some association between the two. Twenty-one of the first 23 astronauts were oldest children, for example, and 20 of the 35 U.S. presidents were the first-born in their family. Ten of those 20 presidents, incidentally, have led the country to war; only one of the other 15 have done the same.

The BBC now wants to add personal anecdotes to its story. People who think that their birth order determined their course in life - from career path to parenting, choosing a partner to social skills - and want to tell their story should call [phone].