New SIDs blood test
Filed under: Sudden Infant Death — Alan @ 3:04 am
Researchers at Strasbourg University Hospital may have discovered an important new means of identifying babies at risk of SIDS with just a single blood test. They believe that determining the level of acetylcholine in a baby’s blood could be a key factor in calculating the likelihood of SIDS and possibly in preventing its occurrence.
Acetylcholine is a chemical substance, produced by the cardiac nerve that controls the heart rate. If too much of it is absorbed by the heart it can slow the heartbeat down to the point of stopping completely. The researchers confirmed that eight out of nine tissue samples taken from victims of SIDS contained high levels of acetylcholine.
Professor Pascal Bousquet, head of the research team at the University of Strasbourg, said that it is highly unusual to find such a marked anomaly in scientific research, and considers it a breakthrough in the quest for a way of pinpointing high-risk babies very early in their development. He thinks that if the anomaly can be identified with a blood test, we can try out existing drugs to see if they are effective in blocking the absorption of acetylcholine.
In the U.K the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths says that the research done by the French team is valuable and may lead to a better understanding of this syndrome. They agree that more research is called for in terms of the neurotransmitter receptors in the heart and their connection to SIDS vulnerability. At this stage, according to Professor Bousquet, there is no funding for such additional study.
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