Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) accounts for about 37% of sudden sudden infant deaths each year in the United States, and the cause of SIDS remains largely unknown. Researchers at The Children’s Hospital Westmead in Sydney on Saturday released a study that identified the first biochemical marker that could help detect babies more at risk for SIDS while alive.
SIDS refers to the unexplained death of babies under one year of age and usually occurs while the child is sleeping. According to the Mayo Clinic, many in the medical community suspect that this phenomenon may be caused by a defect in the part of the brain that controls the excitement of sleep and breathing. The theory was that if the baby stopped breathing during sleep, the defect would prevent them from startling or waking up.
Researchers in Sydney were able to confirm this theory by analyzing dried blood samples taken from newborns who died of SIDS and other unknown causes. Each SIDS sample was then compared to blood taken from healthy babies. They found that the activity of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) was significantly lower in infants who died of SIDS than in live infants and other deaths in non-SIDS infants. BChE plays a major role in the excitation pathway of the brain, explaining why SIDS usually occurs during sleep.
Parents have previously been told that SIDS can be prevented if only appropriate precautions are taken: placing babies on their backs, preventing them from overheating, and keeping all toys and blankets out of the crib are some of the most important preventative steps. It is important that they still are, as there is still no test for this biomarker.
But many children whose parents have taken all precautions have still died of SIDS. These parents were left with great guilt, wondering if they could prevent the death of their baby.
Dr. Carmel Harrington, the study’s lead researcher, was one of those parents. Her son died unexpectedly as a baby 29 years ago. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Harrington explained what she was told about the cause of her child’s death.
“No one could tell me. They just said it was a tragedy. But it was a tragedy that didn’t fit well in my scientific brain.”
Since then, she has worked to find the cause of SIDS, both for herself and for the medical community as a whole. She went on to explain why this discovery is so important for parents whose babies have suffered from SIDS.
“These families can now live with the knowledge that it is not their fault,” she said.
In the study, the researchers wrote: “This finding represents the possibility of identifying babies at risk for babies with SIDS before death and opens new avenues for future research on specific interventions.
Now that this biomarker has been further confirmed, researchers can turn their attention to a solution. Over the next few years, those in the medical community who have studied SIDS are likely to work on a screening test to identify babies at risk for SIDS and hopefully prevent it completely.
BioSpace would like to clarify that despite this breakthrough, it is still extremely important for anyone caring for a baby to follow safe sleep practices. Ie: to put them on their backs, not to let them overheat and to keep all toys and blankets out of the crib. We are in contact with Dr. Harrington and look forward to a more in-depth discussion of the potential implications of these findings.
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