Researchers from The Children’s Hospital Westmead in Sydney, Australia released a study that confirmed not only how infants die from sudden infant death syndrome, but why.
Highlights
- Sudden infant death syndrome accounts for 37% of sudden unexpected infant deaths a year in the U.S.
- Researchers from The Children’s Hospital Westmead in Sydney, Australia released a study that confirmed not only how infants die from SIDS, but why.
- The study found activity of the enzyme butyryrylcholinesterase (BChE) was significantly lower in babies who died of SIDS compared to living infants and other non-SIDS infant deaths.
- BChE plays a major role in the brain’s arousal pathway, explaining why SIDS typically occurs during sleep.
- In the next few years, researchers will likely work on a screening test to identify babies who are at risk for SIDS and hopefully prevent it altogether.