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American Morning

Paging Dr. Gupta: New Study on SIDS

Aired November 11, 2003 - 08:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A new study suggests that a protein in the brain may provide a clue in solving the mystery behind SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta here in New York now to talk more about this.

Nice to see you. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Yes, it's the No. 1 killer of kids between the age of 1 month and 1 year. That is in developed countries. It's a big puzzle. SIDS for a long time has been a huge puzzle. People have been trying to figure this out for some time.

There is a model out there. It's called the triple risk model, that people believe is the most likely cause of SIDS. Take a look at this now. Three things really coming into play here. Sleep apnea, or low birth weight, some sort of thing like that, in addition to a respiratory infection or some cause of lack of oxygen. Both of those risk factors occurring at a critical period of development, usually between three and eight months. No. 1 killer as I mentioned, though, between one month and one year.

The question is, why do these three things -- why does a seemingly simple respiratory infection cause death? And that's been the question that researchers have focused in on a new study now to the journal of neurologist, specifically looking at the brain stem. They're trying to figure out, Bill, the cardiac center, the centers that control your breathing, they seem to be affected in some way in those children with SIDS. What is it about that? They've found a particular protein called a sydokine (ph) that appears to be elevated. This was all done in autopsies on SIDS patients, a very small study, just looking at nine children overall. They found that this protein level was actually elevated in those children, and perhaps that may be the marker that they've been looking for for some time.

HEMMER: Interesting results. What's a parent to do right now with this information?

GUPTA: Well, this is information at this point. It is a small study, for sure. But a couple of things, one, it may be possible in the future to actually be able to measure these sort of things, measure this particular sydokine level, to try to figure out whether or not you can determine if a kid is at particular risk for SIDS. We're nowhere close to that at this point. But that might be something in the future. Certainly a lot of parents paying close attention to that. But also I think the basics still apply in the meantime, the basics apply for parents.

Putting your kid back to sleep, I think, is the piece of advice people have been touting for quite some time, probably the best piece of advice. Make sure your child is not sleeping in a bed with a lot of loose bedding. Do not bed share, especially with children under the age of 2 years old. And, obviously, get a respiratory infection treated quickly.

HEMMER: So as you talk about this and tick of all of this, can you as a parent do everything right and still possibly lose your child?

GUPTA: Absolutely. And I think that's the devastate thing for so many people. I've actually -- I just took a course to be a medical investigator. We talked a lot about SIDS. It's a very difficult thing. And there's always the question, was there some sort of negligence in some way? And there are clear-cut cases where absolutely no negligence is found, but a child is still dead, unfortunately, at a very young age. This has been a puzzle for some time. This may be another clue toward that.

HEMMER: Also you put on the screen boys are more common victims than girls. Any reason why?

GUPTA: They haven't really been able to figure that one out either. It may have something to do, again, with this particular marker. They may find as they do larger studies with this that boys for some reason have more of these inflammatory markers in the base of the brain than girls do.

But, Bill, this has been a real puzzle, which is I think why so many doctors are so interested in this particular thing. They are going to shoot for anything, but this has been the closest in quite some time.

HEMMER: Thanks, Sanjay, good to see you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 11, 2003 - 08:42   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A new study suggests that a protein in the brain may provide a clue in solving the mystery behind SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta here in New York now to talk more about this.

Nice to see you. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Yes, it's the No. 1 killer of kids between the age of 1 month and 1 year. That is in developed countries. It's a big puzzle. SIDS for a long time has been a huge puzzle. People have been trying to figure this out for some time.

There is a model out there. It's called the triple risk model, that people believe is the most likely cause of SIDS. Take a look at this now. Three things really coming into play here. Sleep apnea, or low birth weight, some sort of thing like that, in addition to a respiratory infection or some cause of lack of oxygen. Both of those risk factors occurring at a critical period of development, usually between three and eight months. No. 1 killer as I mentioned, though, between one month and one year.

The question is, why do these three things -- why does a seemingly simple respiratory infection cause death? And that's been the question that researchers have focused in on a new study now to the journal of neurologist, specifically looking at the brain stem. They're trying to figure out, Bill, the cardiac center, the centers that control your breathing, they seem to be affected in some way in those children with SIDS. What is it about that? They've found a particular protein called a sydokine (ph) that appears to be elevated. This was all done in autopsies on SIDS patients, a very small study, just looking at nine children overall. They found that this protein level was actually elevated in those children, and perhaps that may be the marker that they've been looking for for some time.

HEMMER: Interesting results. What's a parent to do right now with this information?

GUPTA: Well, this is information at this point. It is a small study, for sure. But a couple of things, one, it may be possible in the future to actually be able to measure these sort of things, measure this particular sydokine level, to try to figure out whether or not you can determine if a kid is at particular risk for SIDS. We're nowhere close to that at this point. But that might be something in the future. Certainly a lot of parents paying close attention to that. But also I think the basics still apply in the meantime, the basics apply for parents.

Putting your kid back to sleep, I think, is the piece of advice people have been touting for quite some time, probably the best piece of advice. Make sure your child is not sleeping in a bed with a lot of loose bedding. Do not bed share, especially with children under the age of 2 years old. And, obviously, get a respiratory infection treated quickly.

HEMMER: So as you talk about this and tick of all of this, can you as a parent do everything right and still possibly lose your child?

GUPTA: Absolutely. And I think that's the devastate thing for so many people. I've actually -- I just took a course to be a medical investigator. We talked a lot about SIDS. It's a very difficult thing. And there's always the question, was there some sort of negligence in some way? And there are clear-cut cases where absolutely no negligence is found, but a child is still dead, unfortunately, at a very young age. This has been a puzzle for some time. This may be another clue toward that.

HEMMER: Also you put on the screen boys are more common victims than girls. Any reason why?

GUPTA: They haven't really been able to figure that one out either. It may have something to do, again, with this particular marker. They may find as they do larger studies with this that boys for some reason have more of these inflammatory markers in the base of the brain than girls do.

But, Bill, this has been a real puzzle, which is I think why so many doctors are so interested in this particular thing. They are going to shoot for anything, but this has been the closest in quite some time.

HEMMER: Thanks, Sanjay, good to see you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com