Dr Harington and her team

Together with The Children's Hospital at Westmead in New South Wales, Dr Harrington and a team of researchers identified the first biochemical marker that indicates a baby's vulnerability to SIDS while they are still alive.

The study published by The Lancet's eBioMedicine found levels of Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), an enzyme which plays a major role in the brain's arousal pathway, were significantly lower in babies who died of SIDS compared to living controls and other infant deaths.

BChE plays a major role in the brain's arousal pathway and researchers believe its deficiency likely indicates an arousal deficit, which reduces an infant's ability to wake or respond to the external environment, causing vulnerability to SIDS.

Researchers believe the findings have the potential to be 'game-changing', opening up the possibility for intervention.  

This will also finally provide answers to parents who have lost their children to the tragic condition causing sudden death.

'Babies have a very powerful mechanism to let us know when they are not happy. Usually, if a baby is confronted with a life-threatening situation, such as difficulty breathing during sleep because they are on their tummies, they will arouse and cry out,' Dr Harrington told The Sydney Children's Hospital Network.

'What this research shows is that some babies don't have this same robust arousal response.

'This has long been thought to be the case, but up to now we didn't know what was causing the lack of arousal.

'Now that we know that BChE is involved we can begin to change the outcome for these babies and make SIDS a thing of the past.'