Study Links Unusual Blood Metabolites in Newborns to Increased SIDS Risk

Researchers at UC San Francisco have found that newborns with an unusual pattern of metabolites in their blood — the byproducts created when the body processes energy — were far more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome, adding to a growing body of research suggesting that babies who die from SIDS may have underlying conditions that can be detected early in life. The researchers compared the metabolic blood panels from the newborn heel prick tests of 354 infants born between 2005 and 2011 in California who died of SIDS, and compared them with the panels of healthy babies who were born at a similar gestational age and birth weight. They found that babies with unusual metabolites in their blood were 14 times more likely to die from SIDS as those with the lowest-risk pattern, according to the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. “We were surprised the moment the data came out,” said senior author of the study Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski, a professor at UCSF and New York University. “It suggests that the babies who pass away from SIDS may be having specific difficulties processing sugar and energy.

” Jelliffe-Pawlowski said that this study alone is not enough to change clinical practice, or the state to begin identifying these unusual metabolite patterns in newborn heal prick samples, which are currently used to screen for 80 genetic and congenital disorders in California. But the findings are a promising contribution to scientists’ understanding of SIDS, the leading cause of death for infants between 1 month and 1 year of age, giving researchers an important new line of inquiry. Much more research is needed, she said, including a study that identifies and monitors children with this unusual metabolic marker over time. For decades, scientists have been trying to figure out what causes SIDS, the sudden and unexplained death of an otherwise healthy infant before their first birthday. Ninety percent of SIDS deaths occur in babies ages 6 months or younger and peak between 2 and 4 months of age.

The syndrome is also called “crib death,” because infants often die in their cribs. In the 1980s, a major breakthrough was made linking SIDS with unsafe sleep practices, including putting a baby to sleep on their stomach, and public health agencies launched the first “safe sleep” campaigns in the 1990s, with public service announcements on TV and “Back to Sleep” messages printed on rice cereal boxes. The campaigns were a success, and the recommendations are still given to parents around the world. The rate of SIDS plunged during the 1990s. But they plateaued around 1998 and have remained stubbornly high.

In 2020, there were 3,400 sudden unexpected infant deaths.