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New Possible SIDS Genes Identified
ScienceDaily is reporting that researchers at the Mayo Clinic have identified two more cardiac genes that could contribute to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). From the article: "In the two recent separate studies, researchers examined caveolin-3 (CAV3) and the cardiac ryanodine receptor (RyR2) and found molecular and functional evidence in both to implicate them as SIDS-susceptibility genes. Researchers examined the tissue of 135 unrelated cases of SIDS -- in infants with an average age of 3 months old -- that had been referred to Mayo Clinic's Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory for molecular autopsy. In each study, two of the 135 cases possessed mutations in either CAV3 or RyR2."
Seems like a cool organisation. Wikipedia:
"Mayo Clinic is significant in the way the medical physicians' are paid. In most health care systems, medical doctors are paid based on the number of patients that they see. The more patients seen, the more a doctor gets paid. At Mayo Clinic, medical doctors are paid a salary that is unaffected by patient volume. This allows the doctors to spend time with their patients and not worry so much about time constraints. Physicians and surgeons have no undue influence upon them to do more procedures and operations."
That's a marvellous philosophy if you ask me, and they still made US$5.6 billion in 2004. Good for them.
From what I understand, SIDS is caused when the brain doesn't properly send the "I'm not getting enough oxygen" message or the baby's unable to do anything about the message being sent. For example, sleeping on the front with fluffy blankets can make it hard for them to move around, even if they get the appropriate signal. In other cases, it may be that the signal itself may not get sent, as that part of the brain isn't developed enough. Things like pacifiers seem to help, perhaps because it maintains a level of awakeness or simply keeps their mouth open.
It may be that the search for a root genetic cause may be futile. The good news is that simple physical precautions such as sleeping on the back and pacifiers seem to cut down on SIDS dramatically.
Even if genetics play a role, it may be different than people think. It's important to realize that evolution often shoots for the "good enough" solution and that we carry around the baggage of billions of years of effort. Perhaps the babies that survived best historically were those who spent their limited growth "energy" on developing skeletal and muscle tissue. The part of the brain that signals low oxygen wasn't very useful during the first few months, as children typically slept in the arms of an adult. Speculation, of course, but it hopefully shows the ways that evolutionary pressures can lead to odd results.