UT Tyler faculty to investigate signs of opioid exposure in infants

TYLER – The University of Texas at Tyler has announced that faculty within the College of Engineering have received National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to study signs of opioid exposure in infants. Dr. Premananda Indic and Dr. Pravitha Ramanand received an $861,744 subaward to support “Vital Signs in Opioid Exposed Neonates,” a University of Alabama at Birmingham project. “There is an ongoing epidemic of opioid use during pregnancy,” said UA-Birminghams’s Dr. Namasivayam Ambalavanan as quoted in a news release. Pioneering work conducted by the team has identified that patterns of heart rate and breathing as early as the first day after birth can be used to identify infants who later develop signs of opioid withdrawal, according to the release. “The research may also lead to the more accurate management of drug therapy using objective cardiorespiratory data,” said Indic, also as quoted in the release.