Cases of infants dying suddenly in both safe and unsafe sleeping conditions have not been scarce, but new research suggests many of the affected babies have brainstem-related issues.
The researchers hope by pinpointing the problem, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) could be detected early and possibly even prevented in the future, a Boston Children's Hospital news release reported.
The researchers noticed a majority of the infants whose sudden death was attributed to SIDS had a brain stem chemistry that set them apart infants that died of other causes.
The team believes this difference in chemistry impaires brain circuits responsible for "breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and temperature control during sleep," the news release reported. These changes could have prevented the babies from waking up if they overheated or breathed in too much carbon dioxide in a sleeping area that was not well-ventilated.
The researchers looked at 71 infants that died suddenly and were autopsied in San Diego between the years 1997 and 2008 who also ha brain stem samples available. Some of the infants died in safe (asphyxia not likely) sleeping environments and others in unsafe (asphyxia likely) situations such as in a bed with another person or with their face in a pillow.
In the end, there 15 infants that were not believed to have died from asphyxia, 35 that hadpossible asphyxia-related deaths, and a control group of nine infants that died from other causes. Other infants were excluded from the study.
Neurochemical abnormalities involving serotonin and its receptors in the brain stem were found in both groups of study subjects.
"Even the infants dying in unsafe sleep environments had an underlying brainstem abnormality that likely made them vulnerable to sudden death if there was any degree of asphyxia," Hannah Kinney, MD, a neuropathologist at Boston Children's Hospital, said. "The abnormality prevents the brainstem from responding to the asphyxial challenge and waking."
The team believes this confirms SIDS can be linked to abnormalities in the brain stem.
"Certainly, there are unsafe sleeping environments that can cause any baby to die, such as entrapment in the crib, but if it's just sleeping face down, the baby who dies may have an underlying brainstem vulnerability," Kinney said. "We have to find ways to test for this underlying vulnerability in living babies and then to treat it. Our team is focused now upon developing such a test and treatment.
"Safe sleep practices absolutely remain important, so these infants are not put in a potentially asphyxiating situation that they cannot respond to," she said.
