Serum testosterone and estradiol in sudden infant death.
OBJECTIVE
To test the hypothesis that among infants who die unexpectedly, testosterone and/or estradiol levels are elevated in those diagnosed with SIDS versus those with known causes of death (controls).


METHODS
Postmortem blood was collected and coded from infant autopsies, and serum was prepared and frozen until assayed for total testosterone and estradiol by fluoroimmunoassay. Subject information was then collected from the medical examiner's report.


RESULTS
Testosterone, but not estradiol, was significantly higher in 127 SIDS cases versus 42 controls for both males (4.8 +/- 0.4 vs 2.2 +/- 0.4 nmol, respectively; P < .005) and females (2.4 +/- 0.2 vs 1.6 +/- 0.2 nmol, respectively; P < 0.03).


CONCLUSIONS
Higher testosterone levels in infant victims of unexpected, unexplained death may indicate a role for testosterone or related steroids in SIDS. Further research is needed to understand the potential utility of testosterone as an indicator of SIDS risk.
Emery
Michael J
MJ
Department of Physiology & Biophysics, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA. mjemery@u.washington.edu
Krous
Henry F
HF
Nadeau-Manning
Julie M
JM
Marck
Brett T
BT
Matsumoto
Alvin M
AM
D017677:Age Distribution; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004958:Estradiol / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013398:Sudden Infant Death / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
D013739:Testosterone; D004958:Estradiol