Testosterone levels found to be higher in SIDS deaths

Testosterone levels found to be higher in SIDS deaths
A new study says that infants who have a higher level of the male hormone testosterone face increased risk of succumbing to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Michael Emery of the University of Washington and colleagues found that infants who had died from SIDS had 50 to 120 percent greater levels of testosterone. They arrived at these conclusions after taking the blood samples of 127 infants who died from SIDS and comparing them with the samples of 42 infants who had died of other known causes.

"These results may be important for better understanding of SIDS because the known relationship between testosterone and breathing during sleep provides a mechanism that potentially contributes to SIDS," Emery said in a press release. The detailed report appears in the in the November 17 issue of The Journal of Pediatrics.

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Testosterone levels were found to be higher in both male and female babies, but estrogen, the female hormone, was not found to be high in either sex. However, the researchers said that it was too early to conclude that testosterone was responsible for SIDS. Previous studies had found that testosterone inhibits breathing during sleep, but a host of other factors are also responsible for the occurrence of SIDS including, smoking during pregnancy or after giving birth and sharing the bed with the baby.

Commenting on the findings of the current study, Dr. Robin Walker, a neonatalogist in Ottawa and the former president of the Canadian Pediatric Society, said, "Of course, we do not know if this means that high hormone levels cause SIDS or are just something that happens after SIDS occurs."