Medical Examiner studies SIDS deaths

SAN DIEGO COUNTY – The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office is playing a key research role in a national study that seeks to determine a cause and identify babies who would be at risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

The study is still in progress, but recently found that an abnormality of the brain’s hippocampus, which helps regulate breathing and heart rate pattern, was present in about 43 percent of infants who died of unexplained causes.

The finding was based on examinations of sections of hippocampus from 153 infants autopsied in San Diego County between 1991 and 2012....