Thyrotropin Screening of Newborns: Before or After 72 Hours of Life? Before Discharge or at Home?
Authors' conclusion
In term newborns, TSH screening before discharge, as early as 48 hours of life, is a valid strategy. It allows earlier treatment of positive cases, does not increase the percentage of false positives, and results in fewer unusable samples.
Study context
- Population
- Live births ≥37 weeks of gestation screened by the Université Libre de Bruxelles Newborn Screening Center, January 2019–December 2021
- Participants
- 53,794 newborns
- Exposure
- TSH screening <72 hours vs ≥72 hours of life; Dried blood spot (DBS) before discharge vs at home
- <72 hoursn = 24,816
- 72–144 hoursn = 28,978reference
- Outcome
- TSH level and false positives, <72 vs 72–144 hours
Methodological detailssingle screening centre
- Single screening centre
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Values
False positives <72 hours 0.08% · 72–144 hours 0.07%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Delay for transferring sample to laboratory
Unusable samples · poorer quality of home sampling
P < 0.001
Original publication
Thyrotropin Screening of Newborns: Before or After 72 Hours of Life? Before Discharge or at Home? Thyroid. Published 4 September 2023. doi:10.
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