University of Adelaide Professor Roger Byard chases blood test for SIDS
The Adelaide pathologist who not only wrote the book on SIDS, he wrote five, is determined to answer one question that has puzzled him for more than 30 years.
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After decades of research dedicated to saving babies from SIDS, University of Adelaide Professor Roger Byard is striving to answer the question: “Why don’t they just lift their heads?”
He suspects a certain chemical (substance P), which controls head and neck movement, is lacking in their brains. If a genetic link is found, a simple blood test could identify babies most at risk.
“We’re realising that these babies have abnormal controls of their breathing and their heart rate, at the back of their brain,” Prof Byard said.
“If there is a genetic reason for this problem with substance P then that would be very exciting, because we might have a genetic marker for risk of SIDS.”
In SA, the annual number of SIDS deaths has fallen from more than 50 in the 1980s to just one or two deaths a year now.
“Sometimes the parents are doing everything right and the babies still die,” Prof Byard said. “That’s because they have this problem with control of their nervous system, it’s a terrible thing.”
Today on Red Nose Day, August 14, he will be awarded a Doctor of Science from the University of Tasmania, which is the highest academic degree the university can bestow, awarded to mark significant career contributions to a chosen field of research.
“No parent should ever have to see their child die and so I have worked for many years to help understand and prevent a wide variety of lethal diseases and conditions,” he said.
“It is so fulfilling, because you see such sad cases and yet, if you can work out why a death has happened and what steps you can take to prevent it, that’s really, really important.”