Doctors discover possible cause of sudden and unexplained deaths in toddlers

Video recordings of babies in their cribs could be a key in revealing the cause of sudden and unexplained infant deaths.

Researchers from New York University have identified brief seizures accompanied by muscle convulsions as a possible cause of sudden deaths in toddlers.

The studypublished in the journal Neurology, looked at cases of sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC), analyzing medical records and videos of sleeping children provided by families.

The videos showed children having seizures that lasted less than 60 seconds and occurred within 30 minutes before death.

SUDC is a category of deaths in children aged 12 to 18 months that remains unexplained after thorough investigation, including autopsy. A coroner can review the death of a SUDC child after completing an investigation and finding no other cause of death.

Above you can see the top ten leading causes of child mortality and whether these have increased or decreased in 2022 (light blue) compared to 2021 (dark blue)

With SUDC, a child usually goes to sleep and never wakes up. There is no known cause or prevention.

Due to different research methods and the way deaths are recorded, it is not known how common the condition is, but statistics show that approximately 2,900 children under the age of four die each year in the US from unknown causes.

NYU researchers estimate that there are 400 SUDC cases per year in the U.S., occurring mostly during sleep, and that about half of deaths occur in children one to three years old.

For the study, researchers from New York looked at 300 cases of SUDC in which there was no definitive cause of death.

They identified seven cases with home videos of the child’s last sleep period before his death. Each video was reviewed for motion and sound by eight physicians.

Videos reviewed by the team included those from security systems or commercial crib cameras.

The team observed the children convulsing for between eight and fifty seconds.

Five of the toddlers died shortly after movements that were considered brief seizures by forensic pathologists, an epilepsy specialist and a sleep specialist.

Researchers also believe a sixth child who died from SUDC also had a seizure.

Lead researcher Laura Gould, whose own daughter died from SUDC at 15 months old, said: ‘Our study, although small, provides the first direct evidence that seizures may be responsible for some sudden deaths in children, which are usually not witnessed during sleep. is. ‘

Senior researcher and neurologist Orrin Devinsky added: ‘These study results show that seizures are much more common than patients’ medical histories suggest, and that further research is needed to determine whether seizures are common in sleep-related deaths in toddlers, and possibly also in children. in infants, older children and adults.’

SUDC is similar to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the sudden and unexplained death of a child between one month and one year old.

Even after a full examination, doctors cannot determine the cause of death.

As with SUDC, there is no known cause of SIDS. However, there are known risk factors and ways you can reduce your child’s chance of dying from the condition.

The Cleveland Clinic reports that 90 percent of babies who die from SIDS are younger than six months and that most babies appear to have died in their sleep between midnight and 6 a.m.

The clinic estimates that approximately 2,500 babies die from SIDS each year in the U.S. – making it the leading cause of death in babies between one and 12 months of age.

Nearly all SIDS and SUDC deaths occur without any warning or sign.

However, researchers have studied possible causes of SIDS and largely agree that babies who die from SIDS have an underlying vulnerability, such as a genetic pattern or a brain abnormality, that when exposed to a trigger during the early stages of SIDS development the immune system and brain causes sudden death.

NYU researchers estimate that there are 400 SUDC cases per year in the US, occurring mainly during sleep and that about half of the deaths occur in children aged one to three years old (stock photo)

Risk factors for SIDS include a mother who smokes, drinks or uses drugs during pregnancy, premature birth, teenage pregnancies, low birth weight, overheating, an unsafe sleeping environment and being male at birth.

There is no scientific evidence that vaccines cause cot death.

Preventive measures against SIDS include not sharing a bed with your baby, removing loose bedding from a baby’s sleeping environment, placing the baby on the back, keeping the sleeping environment cool, and using a baby-proof bed. cradle.

SIDS cases outnumber SUDC cases by four to one, but SIDS is much more extensively researched than SUDC, and receives approximately twenty times as much funding.

A previous one study from NYU in 2021 identified the first genetic risk factor for SUDC, finding that changes in specific genes that regulate calcium function may contribute to deaths.

Calcium is important for brain cell and heart muscle function. When calcium does not function properly in the body, it can cause abnormal heart rhythms or seizures, both of which increase the risk of sudden death.

Dr. Devinsky of the latest study called convulsive seizures the possible “smoking gun that medical science has been looking for to understand why these children are dying.”

He added: ‘Studying this phenomenon can also provide critical insight into many other deaths, including those from cot death and epilepsy.’