New Research into Sudden Infant Death
Free Webinar: New Research into Sudden Infant Death: Unraveling the Mystery of SIDS
May 20, 2010
3:00pm to 4:30pm EDT
There is no charge but participants must register to participate in the live webinar. Please click here to register.
Co-Sponsored by the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) and the Association of SIDS and Infant Mortality Programs (ASIP), and in partnership with the National SUID Resource Center, National SUID Program Support Center, National Center for Cultural Competence, and National SUID Project IMPACT.
SPEAKERS:
Henry F. Krous, MD The Role of the Postmortem Evaluation in Research Into SIDS
Dr. Krous is a Professor of Pathology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and Director of the San Diego SIDS/SUDC Research Project. Dr. Krous has been involved in SIDS research during the past 30 years, 20 of which have been in collaboration with Dr. Hannah Kinney. His activities also include participation in legislative development and implementation, survivor grief counseling, and public educational speaking. He has served as a consultant to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Child and Human Development in the development of national standards for infant death scene investigation. As a SIDS advocate, he was instrumental in the design and implementation of the California Standardized Autopsy and Death Scene Investigation Protocols for sudden unexpected infant death, and the International Standardized SIDS Autopsy Protocol. Dr. Krous has represented the United States at numerous International SIDS Conferences, such as the Global Strategy Task Force Pathology Working Party for whom he was the Chair of the International Autopsy Protocol Committee.
He is the author or co-author of greater than 300 research publications, abstracts, and chapters, and delivered nearly 200 invited lectures worldwide. He has co-edited with Dr. Roger Byard the book, “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Problems, Progress and Possibilities.” Dr. Krous was the recipient of the 1999 Senator Daniel E. Boatwright Award, California’s highest recognition for “extraordinary public service on behalf of Californians touched by SIDS.
Hannah Kinney, MD Serotonergic Deficiencies in SIDS
Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Associate in Medicine, Department of Pathology, Children’s Hospital Boston. For more than 20 years, Dr. Kinney’s research has been directed at defining the causes of sudden infant death syndrome and her efforts to uncover the mystery behind SIDS have been unyielding. Doctor Kinney and colleagues are testing the idea that SIDS, or a subset of SIDS, is due to a developmental brainstem defect in autonomic and/or respiratory control during sleep. The ultimate goals of the research are to define brainstem abnormalities in living infants and to suggest ways of preventing the abnormalities from leading to sudden infant death.
SIDS research is a “controversial area,” Kinney says. Many experts look to the “triple risk” model proposed by Dr. Kinney to explain it, believing that SIDS results from an underlying vulnerability, a critical developmental period, and an outside stressor. Her research suggests low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, and probably other brain chemicals yet to be identified, are what make infants vulnerable. Other experts suspect other vulnerabilities, such as infections. Yet others say SIDS is due simply to suffocation, she says. “We say, yes, some babies will die if they are severely asphyxiated,” But she adds, “what we are saying is in the majority of cases, the babies have an underlying defect that puts them at risk that makes them unable to respond to a stressor, such as having their face compressed [while sleeping on the stomach or becoming tangled in soft bedding].”
Leave a Comment