Potential of Blood Test to Identify Cause of Brain Injury in Newborns: Insights from Latest Research – Medriva

In a groundbreaking development, researchers from Imperial College London have discovered that a blood test could potentially identify the underlying cause of brain injury in newborn babies. The study, a significant stride in neonatal care, throws light on the gene expression patterns in the blood that can provide clues about the cause of the injury and help predict the newborns response to cooling treatment. This could be a game-changer in diagnosing and treating brain injury in newborns, particularly hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a major cause of death and disability among babies born at full term.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, involved newborns from both low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs). The researchers identified significant differences in gene expression between the two groups, indicating different underlying causes of brain injury.

As per the findings, the gene expression patterns in babies from low-income countries were similar to those in people with sleep apnea. This suggests that these babies might have experienced intermittent hypoxia in the womb and at birth, caused by factors such as poor nutrition, infection, and chronic stress during pregnancy. On the other hand, in wealthier countries, the cause of brain injury was more likely to be a single cause, such as complications during birth.

Cooling treatment, also known as whole-body cooling, involves lowering a babys body temperature to treat brain injuries. While this treatment has shown to improve outcomes for babies with hypoxia in rich countries, the study found that it worsened outcomes in babies from LMICs. This difference in response to cooling treatment between the two groups provides valuable insights into improving outcomes for babies with HIE.

The blood test developed by the Imperial College London researchers is capable of detecting signals in the blood that show how a newborn had suffered from hypoxia a shortage of oxygen during or shortly after birth. This test could guide doctors on whether or not to use cooling treatment and could be particularly useful in poor countries where babies are born with brain injuries caused by various factors.

With around 3 million babies affected by HIE every year, the majority of whom are from poor countries, the significance of this blood test cannot be overstated. The ability to quickly diagnose brain injury in newborns and guide treatment decisions could drastically improve neonatal care across the globe.

However, further research is needed to refine this blood test and to understand more about the causes of brain injury in newborns. The differences in gene expression and treatment outcomes related to socioeconomic factors rather than ethnicity pose intriguing questions for further exploration. The findings of this study underscore the need for tailored, context-specific treatment approaches to improve the outcomes for newborn babies with brain injury.

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Potential of Blood Test to Identify Cause of Brain Injury in Newborns: Insights from Latest Research - Medriva