Blood Test At Birth Could Eventually Identify Babies At Increased Risk Of Sids

Jenny Gold | Los Angeles Times (TNS) Researchers at UC San Francisco have found that newborns with an unusual pattern of metabolites in their blood — the byproducts created when the body processes energy — were far more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome, adding to a growing body of research suggesting that babies who die from SIDS may have underlying conditions that can be detected early in life. The researchers compared the metabolic blood panels from the newborn heel prick tests of 354 infants born between 2005 and 2011 in California who died of SIDS, and compared them with the panels of healthy babies who were born at a similar gestational age and birth weight.