Primary blood TSH/back up TSH measurements: an improved approach for neonatal thyroid screening.
OBJECTIVE
Neonatal hypothyroidism is one of the most common endocrine disorders related to mental impairment and growth retardation in newborns. In many countries, the neonatal thyroid screening programs are performed for rapid diagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism. The major aim of this investigation was to improve the thyroid screening program using primary blood TSH/back up TSH measurements as some patients are missed due to technical and human errors.


METHODS
A total of 9,118 neonates were evaluated on the protocol. On top of that, the quality control procedures were applied to improve the sampling technique and the laboratory results.


RESULTS
Three missed neonates by current programs using the cutoff point more than 20  mU/l for blood TSH were found by our approach.


CONCLUSIONS
Results showed that the programs based on the primary blood TSH/back up TSH measurements improve the thyroid screening results.
Biochemistry Department, Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. nbsmmsbn@iums.ac.ir
Mohammad
M
Najafi
Mostafa Mazlom
MM
Farsi
Masoumeh
M
Sabahi
D000465:Algorithms; D003409:Congenital Hypothyroidism / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D015997:Neonatal Screening / Q000379:methods*; D011786:Quality Control; D013972:Thyrotropin / Q000097:blood*
D013972:Thyrotropin
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