The child appears to be sleeping peacefully in his bed, and suddenly he is dead – out of nowhere, with no sign and no apparent cause. The so-called sudden infant death is the greatest misfortune for parents and children and remains a mystery to this day. Australian researchers now want to at least partially address this – they appear to have discovered a biomarker that predicts the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Much is currently being reported about the study, and young parents are getting their hopes up. Can the level of the body’s own butyrylcholinesterase enzyme in the blood be used as a warning sign of sudden infant death? So, for example, could newborn screening be used to determine if a baby is at risk so that preventive measures can be taken?
In the study, which was published in The Lancet, the team led by biochemist Carmel Harrington at Children’s Hospital Sydney measured butyrylcholinesterase in the blood of newborns. Samples were routinely taken from the heel as part of the screening examination in the first days of life, as is also customary in this country. The study included 26 babies who later died of crib death, 30 babies who died of other causes and 545 healthy babies.