Research into cause of infant death. (News & Notes).University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center researchers learned that a deficiency in short-chain L-3-hydroxyacyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase dehydrogenase /de·hy·dro·gen·ase/ (de-hi´dro-jen-as?) an enzyme that catalyzes the transfer of hydrogen or electrons from a donor, oxidizing it, to an acceptor, reducing it. de·hy·dro·gen·ase n. (SCHAD) may be responsible for a small amount of otherwise unexplained deaths in children less than one year of age. After studying 150 infant deaths, researchers found the deficiency present in 2 percent of the cases. A SCHAD deficiency is a congenital metabolic error that occurs as fatty acids fatty acid, any of the organic carboxylic acids present in fats and oils as esters of glycerol. Molecular weights of fatty acids vary over a wide range. The carbon skeleton of any fatty acid is unbranched. Some fatty acids are saturated, i.e. derived from fat stores in the body are metabolized. This results in fatty acids entering the liver that cannot generate energy or produce ketones Ketones Poisonous acidic chemicals produced by the body when fat instead of glucose is burned for energy. Breakdown of fat occurs when not enough insulin is present to channel glucose into body cells. Mentioned in: Diabetic Ketoacidosis, Urinalysis . The brain starves from the deficit of ketones and the infant becomes comatose co·ma·tose adj. 1. Of, relating to, or affected with coma. 2. Marked by lethargy; torpid. comatose (kō´m . --JAMA, Vol. 2, No. 12 |
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