A new blood test could reveal the cause of brain damage in newborns and help doctors decide the best treatment

  • A team from Imperial College London detected signals of hypoxia in the blood of newborns
  • This could then guide doctors on whether or not to use cooling treatment

A blood test can identify the cause of brain damage in newborn babies and help determine the best treatment, scientists have found.

Researchers from Imperial College London were able to detect signals in the blood that showed how a newborn baby was suffering from hypoxia: a lack of oxygen during or shortly after birth.

This could then help doctors decide whether or not to use cooling treatment, which is often used to treat brain injuries but can be harmful in some cases.

The test could be useful in poor countries where babies are born with brain damage caused by various factors, such as poor nutrition, infection and chronic stress during pregnancy.

In high-income countries such as Britain, such injuries are rare and are almost always caused by complications during birth, such as maternal bleeding.

Researchers from Imperial College London were able to detect signals in the blood that showed how a newborn baby was suffering from hypoxia: a lack of oxygen during or shortly after birth

Professor Sudhin Thayyil from Imperial College said: ‘While cases of brain injury in babies may look similar, they can be very different in terms of how they occur.

‘The gene expression patterns we saw in babies from low-income countries were similar to what you would see in people with sleep apnea, suggesting that they experienced intermittent hypoxia in the womb and at birth.

‘We believe this is caused by multiple chronic stresses during pregnancy, such as poor nutrition or infection, as well as the normal birthing process and uterine contractions, leading to further hypoxia and ultimately injury to the baby’s brain.’

Oxygen deficiency can cause several conditions, such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy, deafness or blindness.

Hypoxia is one of the leading causes of death and disability among infants, affecting approximately 3 million babies every year – the vast majority from poor countries. South Asia, and especially India, alone accounts for 60 percent of deaths.

Cooling treatment lowers a baby’s body temperature so that it uses less energy and heals faster.

Previous studies in wealthy countries have shown that the treatment can improve outcomes for babies with hypoxia. As a result, it has become standard practice worldwide. However, it can make matters worse in the kinds of cases that occur in poorer countries.

Prof. Thayyil said: ‘The key for doctors everywhere is to be able to identify as quickly as possible the type of brain injury they are dealing with.’

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