Reduced levels of the cholinergic-system enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) may provide another piece of the puzzle for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), preliminary data from Australian researchers suggested.
A small case-control study led by Carmel T. Harrington, PhD, a sleep medicine expert and honorary research fellow at the Children"s Hospital at Westmead (Australia), found that measurements in 722 dried blood spots taken during neonatal screening 2 or 3 days after birth were lower in babies who subsequently died of SIDS, compared with those of matched surviving controls and other babies who died of non-SIDS causes.
In groups in which cases were reported as SIDS death (n = 26) there was strong evidence that lower BChE-specific activity was associated with death (odds ratio, 0.73 per U/mg; 95% confidence interval, 0.60-0.89, P = .0014). In groups with a non-SIDS death (n = 41), there was no evidence of a linear association between BChE activity and death (OR, 1.001 per U/mg; 95% CI, 0.89-1.13, P = .99). A cohort of 655 age- and sex-matched controls served as a reference group.
Writing online in eBioMedicinethe researchers concluded that a previously unidentified cholinergic deficit, identifiable by abnormal BChE-specific activity, is present at birth in SIDS babies and represents a measurable, specific vulnerability prior to their death.
