Newborn Screening
1 New England Regional Screening Program, State Laboratory Institute, 305 South St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
To the Editor.
With publication of recommendations on newborn screening by the Committee on Genetics of the American Academy of Pediatrics1 and now similar recommendations by McCabe et al,2 a consensus on realistic procedures for newborn screening is developing. These procedures have been successfully followed for almost a decade by a number of state laboratories and include: (1) obtaining a blood specimen from all newborn infants prior to hospital discharge regardless of how early in life this occurs as phenylketonuria (PKU) and congenital hypothyroidism can be identified in most infants even during first hours of life;




