PREMATURE and sick babies can die from bacterial infections that doctors have
missed. But a new way of analysing a baby’s heartbeat may spot these infections
early enough to save lives.
Bacteria that take advantage of a baby’s immature immune system can trigger
overwhelming infections called “sepsis”. Very underweight babies are twice as
likely to die if they have sepsis. Yet cases are often missed because the
symptoms can be confusing.
Neonatologist Pamela Griffin and cardiologist Randall Moorman from the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville examined 89 infants at high risk of
sepsis. They found two properties of a baby’s heartbeat which could help
identify those in distress: temporary, tiny decreases in heart rate, and a
reduction of heart rate variability. It is known that very steady heart rates
can be a sign of trouble. But no one had noticed these subtle changes in
newborns—or linked them to infection. So Moorman and Griffin analysed the
length of time between heartbeats. For newborns with sepsis, the chart showed a
very regular heart rate between 12 and 24 hours before symptoms appeared.
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Griffin suspects that the heartbeat analysis picks up cases of sepsis that
blood tests could miss. Reliable, early detection could alert doctors to sick
babies and let them start antibiotics earlier. “We’re hopeful that we’ll be able
to save lives,” says Griffin.