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Posted on Sat, Jul. 21, 2007

New sensors designed to help prevent SIDS

By JAN JARVIS

Star-Telegram staff writer

S-T/DARRELL BYERS

Hung Cao, left, and J.C. Chiao helped develop the device that detects when a baby stops breathing.

ARLINGTON -- Hung Cao's newborn son provided the inspiration for a device that could help prevent sudden infant death syndrome.

Cao, a graduate research assistant at the University of Texas at Arlington, came up with the idea of using sensors to detect carbon dioxide when a baby exhales while he was watching his son in the hospital nursery.

"My son was lying there without any care," he said. "I thought we need some kind of device to monitor him continuously."

Cao is part of a team at UT-Arlington's Automation & Robotics Research Institute that developed the patent-pending medical device. When a baby stops breathing, sensors in the bars of the crib recognize it and send an alert via a radio refrequency identification tag and receiver. The wireless radio-frequency module alerts a nurse or parent.

About 2,500 infants die from SIDS each year in the United States, according to the American SIDS Institute.

The condition occurs without any warning in healthy babies during the first year of life, said J.C. Chiao, associate professor of electrical engineering at UT-Arlington.

"The baby just stops breathing," said Chiao, who helped the students develop the design.

Since 1992 the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that healthy infants sleep on their backs. Since then the death rate has dropped, but in recent years it has remained steady, leading researchers to recognize a need for an accurate monitor.

Though the concept behind the device sounds simple, making it was challenging. Carbon dioxide concentrations can be difficult to predict and are affected by extreme heat or cold. Cao considered attaching the sensors to the baby, but that proved impractical because parents did not want their infants connected to a device. Then there was the matter of cost.

"Parents are not going to spend $5,000, but they will spend $100 if they are buying security," Chiao said.

The team found inexpensive sensors that could be used inside the bars of what Chiao described as a "smart crib." The wireless device would give off a signal that would allow nurses in a hospital to identify which baby was having trouble breathing, even in a room full of infants, Cao said.

The team has not been able to test the device on babies, but in the lab it has been successful every time. Cao tested it by holding his breath as if he were a baby. The next step is to test it on a robot.

Although other monitors are on the market, this device is unique because it detects carbon dioxide, Chiao said.

Sound monitors have long been used to help parents keep track of their babies while sleeping. One product uses a small camera that can be mounted to the crib and allows parents to observe the baby sleeping on a mobile television. Another device has a sensor that sounds an alarm if there is no movement in the crib for 20 seconds.

The concept makes sense as long as the device works every time, said Dr. Maria Fisher, an Arlington pediatrician.

"It has to be accurate," she said. "Because the one time it does not would be devastating."

She questioned whether the small volume of gas that a baby emits might be trapped in the crib mattress and go undetected.

SIDS babies are often found face down into the mattress.

Although the device has been tested on adults, babies are very different, she said.

The researchers plan to run additional tests on the device to make sure it is 100 percent accurate.

The university has filed for a patent and researchers have published two papers on the device.

Several companies have expressed interest in it, Chiao said, adding that he believes that the device will meet an important need.

"If this save one baby, that's enough," he said.

Risk factors for SIDS

Tummy or side sleeping. Infants who are put on their tummy to sleep are more likely to die from SIDS than infants who sleep on their back.

Soft sleep surfaces. Avoid sleeping on a waterbed, couch, sofa or pillows.

Loose bedding. Sleeping with pillows and comforters, quilts and blankets increases an infant's risk of SIDS.

Overheating. Infants who are overdressed, have too many blankets or are in a hot room are at a higher risk of SIDS.

Smoking. Infants born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are at greater risk.

Bed sharing. The safest place for an infant to sleep is in his or her own crib.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention