SIDS is the unexplained death of a seemingly healthy baby less than a year old, typically during sleep, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Now, researchers at The Children's Hospital in Westmead in Sydney, Australia, were able to confirm the cause of SIDS which typically occurs when infants suddenly die in their sleep.
In the latest study, researchers found that infants who died from SIDS had lower levels of an enzyme known as Butyrylcholinesterase . "We conclude that a previously unidentified cholinergic deficit, identifiable by abnormal -BChEsa, is present at birth in SIDS babies and represents a measurable, specific vulnerability prior to their death," the researchers stated.
"An apparently healthy baby going to sleep and not waking up is every parent’s nightmare and until now there was absolutely no way of knowing which infant would succumb. But that’s not the case anymore. We have found the first marker to indicate vulnerability prior to death," Harrington said in a news release.
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