World’s largest study by London college on babies with brain injuries in South India
Imperial College London will lead the Prevention of Epilepsy by reducing Neonatal Encephalopathy (PREVENT) study to try and reduce the number of epilepsy cases following perinatal brain injury. Researchers from Imperial College, and other institutions in the UK and India will study cases of around 60,000 pregnant women from various parts of South India, including Chennai.
By : migrator
Update: 2019-11-24 21:52 GMT
Chennai
The study that is going to commence in India is the world’s largest study on babies with brain injuries. Brain injury during labour or childbirth is one of the leading causes of epilepsy in babies. A common cause is perinatal asphyxia, where the foetal brain is damaged when oxygen is cut off.
There are about 1.2 crore people in India who are living with epilepsy. There are approximately five lakh new epilepsy cases every year, of which around 17 percent are likely to be related to a birth related brain injury.
As part of the study, all babies with brain injury will have detailed neurophysiological investigations including electroencephalogram (EEG), MRI and other neuro-developmental follow up assessments.
The study is being done with a fund allocation of Rs 33 crores from the National Institute for Health Research, and will be conducted over four years.
Dr Sudhin Thayyil, chief investigator for the project, said that birth asphyxia related brain injury is the most common cause of death and disability in babies worldwide. “We believe that this could be substantially reduced with a ‘care bundle’ that combines many key evidence-based elements which have been shown to reduce perinatal brain injury,” he added.
The researchers believe that perinatal brain injury could be reduced by introducing a ‘care bundle’ to improve the intra-partum care in Indian public hospitals, which includes intelligent foetal heart rate monitoring, an e-partogram, brain oriented neonatal resuscitation and birthcompanions.
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