They identify a biochemical marker that would help prevent sudden death in babies

• Health The danger of sharing a mattress with a baby

A team of

identified a biochemical marker in the blood that could help detect newborns at risk of

Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), a breakthrough they say creates a pathway for future interventions. prevention of tragedies.

In their study, babies who died of SIDS had lower levels of an

called butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) shortly after birth, the researchers said.

BChE plays an important role in the

pathway , and low levels would reduce a sleeping baby's ability to wake up or respond to her environment.

The findings are a

changer, offering not only hope for the future, but also answers for the past,

leader Dr. Carmel Harrington, of Westmead Children's Hospital in Australia, said in a statement.

"A seemingly healthy baby who

is every parent's nightmare and until now there was no way of knowing which baby would succumb," Harrington said.

"But that is no longer the case. We have found the first marker that indicates

before death."

Using dried blood spots taken at birth as part of a

program , Harrington's team compared BChE levels in 26 babies who later died of SIDS, 41 who died of other causes, and

Research

The fact that levels of the

were much lower in infants who died of SIDS suggests that they were inherently vulnerable to dysfunction of

, which controls the body's unconscious and involuntary functions, the researchers said.

The Network of Children's Hospitals in Sydney, Australia, has described the discovery as "a

in the world".

Failure to

when appropriate "has long been considered a key component of a baby's vulnerability" to SIDS, the research team in The Lancet's eBio Medicine said.

SIDS is the unexplained death of an apparently healthy baby

Harrington lost her own son to SIDS 29 years ago and has dedicated her career to researching the condition, according to the statement.

"Further

is urgently needed" to determine whether routine BChE measurement could potentially help prevent future SIDS deaths, the researchers said.

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