Cell link to cot deaths

Press, 18 February 1983, Page 6

Cell link to cot deaths

NZPA-Reuter Boston Sleep apnea, a condition in which a new-born infant “forgets” to breath, apparently is the result of the slow maturation of brain cells, according to a report by an Australian research group. The Australian scientists, led by Dr David HendersonSmart, of the King George V Memorial Hospital in Camperdown, Sydney, said that the results of a study that they had conducted on 53 premature babies seemed to show that underdeveloped brain cells' were responsible when the infants suddenly stopped breathing, according to the latest “New England Journal of Medicine.” . Once those cells,, matured and started processing information efficiently, the apnea disappeared, they said. Some researchers have suspected that sleep apnea, not uncommon in new-born babies, is. responsible for sud- . den infant death syndrome, or cot death, a mysterious condition in which healthy babies inexplicably die. The fact that apnea is most frequently seen in the youngest premature babies prompted speculation by the

scientists that it was caused by the underdevelopment of brain cells. To test that theory, the Henderson-Smart team hooked the 53 premature infants to a brainwave machine and measured the time it took for their brains to react to a series of sounds. They found that the slower the reaction, the more cases of apnea the hospitalised infants experienced. Because the portion of the brain that processes sound lies close to the area which controls breathing, the team concluded that “apnea occurs in pre-term infants with immature brain-stem function.” By the time all the premature infants were about nine months old, as measured by their approximate time of conception, the nerve cells of the brain had begun working at normal speed and the apnea bad disappeared. -The: group theorised that the babies improve over time because the connections between the brain cells become more efficient or because the myelin that insulates the nerve cells is better developed.