- Infant seizures linked to deaths
- Video recordings aid research
- SUDC, SIDS causes explored
Infants’ video recordings in their cribs may hold the key to identifying the cause of unexplained and sudden deaths in childhood.
Prolonged seizures, accompanied by muscle convulsions, have been identified by researchers from New York University. They are recognized as a plausible cause of sudden deaths among infants.
The research, published in the journal Neurology, examined instances of sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC) through the analysis of medical records and family-provided videos of children asleep.
The recordings documented instances in which children experienced seizures lasting under sixty seconds and transpiring within thirty minutes before their demise.
SUDC refers to a classification of fatalities in infants aged 12 to 18 months in which an exhaustive investigation, including a postmortem, fails to yield an explanation. A coroner may rule a child’s death SUDC if no other cause was found.
The majority of the time, a child will fall asleep with SUDC and remain asleep for the duration. No known cause or preventative measures exist.
It is unknown how frequently the condition occurs due to the varying methods of investigation and how fatalities are certified. However, statistics show 2,900 under-4-year-olds die annually in the US from unexplained reasons.
Researchers at NYU estimate that 400 SUDC cases occur annually in the United States. The majority of deaths occur in children aged one to three years. SUDC occurs primarily during sleep.
Researchers from New York examined 300 cases of SUDC in which the cause of mortality was indeterminate for the study.
Video Evidence of Infant Seizures
Seven cases were identified that contained home videos of the child’s final sleep period before mortality. Eight physicians evaluated each video in terms of motion and sound.
The videos that the team examined comprised those originating from commercial bassinet cameras and security systems.
The group witnessed the children convulse for a duration of eight to fifty seconds.
Five young toddlers died near short seizures discovered by forensic pathologists, seizure specialists, and sleep specialists.
Researchers also suspect that a seizure occurred in the sixth child who perished from SUDC.
Although the team refrained from investigating potential etiological factors, seizures—an abrupt and uncontrolled discharge of electrical impulses in the brain—can be initiated by various conditions such as severe blood sugar fluctuations, genetic predisposition, head trauma, sleep deprivation, brain infections, including meningitis, a brain tumour, or sleep deprivation.
Lead investigator Laura Gould, whose 15-month-old daughter passed away from sudden unobserved death due to convulsions (SUDC), stated, “Our study, despite its limited scope, provides initial direct evidence that seizures might account for certain sudden deaths in children, which are typically unobserved while they are asleep.”
Senior investigator and neurologist Orrin Devinsky, who participated in the study, further stated, “These results indicate that seizures are significantly more prevalent than what patients’ medical histories might suggest; additional research is required to ascertain whether seizures are a frequent cause of sleep-related fatalities in toddlers, and possibly in infants, older children, and adults as well.”
Mysteries of Infant deaths
Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome (SUDC) bears resemblance to SIDS. It is an uncommon and enigmatic fatality that affects infants ranging in age from one month to one year.
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Similar to SUDC, the etiology of SIDS remains unknown. However, risk factors are known, and there are measures you can take to reduce the likelihood that your child will die from the condition.
SIDS reports that 90% of newborn deaths occur in children under six months old, most between midnight and 6:00 am.
According to clinic estimates, SIDS claims the lives of around 2,500 infants annually in the United States, making it the primary cause of death among infants aged one to twelve months.
The vast majority of SIDS and SUDC fatalities occur without warning or indication.
Nevertheless, scholars have investigated potential causes of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and there is broad consensus that infants who perish from SIDS possess an inherent susceptibility, such as a genetic predisposition or a cerebral anomaly, which results in instantaneous demise when triggered during the nascent phases of immune and cerebral development.
SIDS risk factors include a mother who smokes, consumes alcohol, or uses drugs during pregnancy, has a preterm birth, becomes pregnant as an adolescent, has a low birth weight, overheats, sleeps in an unsafe environment or is assigned male at birth.
No scientific evidence supports the notion that vaccines induce SIDS.
SIDS prevention measures include not sharing a bed with your infant, ensuring that loose bedding is removed from the sleeping environment, positioning the infant on their back, maintaining a calm sleeping environment, and utilizing a safe crib for infants.
SIDS research obtains 20 times more funding than SUDC research, while having four times more cases.
The first genetic risk factor for SUDC was identified in a 2021 study from New York University. The study concluded that mutations in particular genes that regulate calcium function may contribute to fatalities.
Calcium is essential for the function of brain cells and cardiac muscle. Calcium deficiency within the body can result in seizures or irregular cardiac rhythms, both elevating the likelihood of unexpected demise.
The latest study’s author, Dr. Devinsky, suggests that convulsive seizures may be the “smoking gun” for why these children die.
Furthermore, research into this phenomenon could shed light on numerous other causes of mortality. Such as those caused by SIDS and epilepsy, he continued.
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