Researchers identify enzyme that could be connected to SIDS

HealthWatch: Researchers closer to identifying SIDS cause; "Smart" pacifiers could help NICU babies

BOSTON -- More than 3,000 babies die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS in the U.S. every year but researchers may be one step closer to preventing it. Dr. Mallika Marshall explains that it's still not clear what causes it and which babies are at risk though:

Experts have long suspected that the problem stems from a part of a baby's brain that controls breathing and waking. In a recent study, researchers in Australia looked at blood samples from 67 infants who died of SIDS and found lower levels of a particular enzyme that helps control functions like blood pressure and breathing.

However, more research is needed to determine whether testing for this enzyme in babies could help identify those at risk and prevent their deaths.

SIDS

Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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