Much applause goes out to a campaign encouraging parents to put babies to sleep on their backs – it has cut the number of babies who die suddenly in half over the past 20 years. Unfortunately, sudden infant death syndrome is still the leading cause of death in babies between 30 days and a year old. In 2000 the number of deaths hit a plateau, despite a higher amount of awareness of the risk factors for the astonishing disorder.
According to the Boston Globe, new research led by Boston Children’s Hospital neuropathologists has highlighted a potential biological cause that directly points at a defect in the brain. This defect has the possibility of being the reason for why babies suddenly die unexpectedly during their sleep. The Journal of the American Medical Association has built on previous work that scientists hope might cure this tragic syndrome.
Dr. Hannah Kinney compared brain-stems to 41 babies that died of SIDS to brain-stems of seven babies who died of other various causes- five of those babies were hospitalized with low oxygen levels before their death. Researchers made an educated guess that SIDS is related to low levels of oxygen, so compariso to these babies would answer many questions. In 35 of the 41 SIDS babies, serotonin levels were 26% lower than in all the babies who did not die of SIDS and levels of an enzyme that spurs serotonin production was 22% lower.
Marian Willinger, who is responsible for the SIDS research program at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development said, “I think this is an important advance in our understanding of what’s wrong with the brainstem of many babies who die from SIDS,” during an interview. “It helps us … to understand the pathophysiology, how the baby dies, because we don’t really know.”
Emphasis on avoiding detected risk factors such as bed sharing, soft bedding and smoking are those the parents can control, at this point, to keep their child safe from SIDS.
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