Newborn Screening Laboratory Manager Missouri Public Health Laboratory
Primary Congenital Hypothyroidism T4 / TSH versus TSH Only
Patrick Hopkins Patrick Hopkins Newborn Screening Laboratory Manager Missouri Public Healt...
Primary Congenital Hypothyroidism T4 / TSH versus TSH Only
Patrick Hopkins Patrick Hopkins Newborn Screening Laboratory Manager Missouri Public Health Laboratory
Early Years of Missouri CH Screening • 1979 – T4 screening began using RIA with the lowest g g g 10% as the cutoff for detecting abnormals. • 1983 – Added TSH as 2nd tier assay and conducted T4 assay in duplicate on every newborn using RIA. • TSH cutoff was 25 uIU/ml for borderline and 50 for presumptive positive. • Through repeat screens, we inadvertently discovered 5 true CH cases that had highly elevated TSH results with normal T4’s on their initial NBS.
Early Years of Missouri CH Screening • Advisory committee was concerned that we could have missed these if a repeat had not been done have missed these if a repeat had not been done. • 1990 – Adopted dual T4 and TSH testing using RIA on all NBS specimens thereby replacing the duplicate T4 all NBS specimens thereby replacing the duplicate T4 screening for TSH with no added cost. • Began encouraging repeat screening (not mandated). g g g p g( ) • Repeat screens increased to 40% (No NBS fee implemented yet). p y ) • We felt confident we were finding all the CH cases possible, and finding them quickly. • But it came with a price!
False Positives Galore! • Early Early collected specimens (