Screening for Hypothyroidism
1 Department of Pediatrics, Letterman Army Medical Center, Presidio of San Francisco, CA 94129
2 Nuclear Medicine Service, Department of Radiology, Letterman Army Medical Center, Presidio of San Francisco, CA 94129
Although the New England Regional Screening Program report1 indicates that human error is the most likely cause of failure to detect congenital hypothyroidism in infants, our experience suggests that compensated hypothyroidism might be missed in some newborns unless screening includes a thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) assay and a thyroxine (T4) concentration. In the past 2 years, we have diagnosed congenital hypothyroidism in three infants. In at least one of these infants, the disease would not have been identified by T4 concentration screening alone.




