Methods of neonatal screening for two diseases

After ten months of pregnancy, every parent is full of expectations and fantasies about their baby. However, when the baby is really born, what worries parents most is the baby's health. However, there are many diseases that cannot be immediately manifested when the baby is just born. The baby needs to be screened for two diseases to detect whether the baby has intellectual disabilities and liver disease, etc. However, many parents are always particularly distressed for the newborn baby, afraid of causing harm to the baby. Let's learn about the methods of newborn screening for two diseases.

Methods of neonatal screening for two diseases

(1) Blood collection time: Blood should be collected within 72 hours of the baby's birth and after at least 6 to 8 breastfeedings.

(2) Blood collection filter paper Blood collection filter paper must be consistent with standard filter paper, which is a special pure cotton high-quality filter paper with uniform texture, thickness, water absorption, water permeability, etc. The filter paper used by most newborn disease screening centers is the internationally recognized American Schleicher & Schuell 903 special filter paper, which not only ensures the quality of screening, but also has comparability with international screening materials.

(3) Blood collection site and method: The inner or outer side of the baby's heel is usually selected. The method is: massage or hot compress the baby's heel to make it congested, then disinfect it with alcohol and puncture it with a disposable blood collection needle, about 2 to 4 mm deep, discard the first drop of blood and drop the squeezed blood on a specific filter paper to allow it to fully penetrate to the back of the filter paper. It is required to collect 3 blood spots from each infant, and the diameter of each blood spot should be ≥10 mm.

(4) Specimen storage and delivery The blood filter paper should be dried in the shade at room temperature and delivered to the screening center within the specified time, or temporarily placed in a paper bag and stored in a refrigerator at 2-10°C.

(5) Requirements for filling out the blood collection card: All items on the blood collection card should be filled out one by one without missing any items. The handwriting should be clear and the text should be standardized.

(6) Screening methods With the development of current laboratory diagnostic technology, most domestic screening laboratories have adopted fluorescence analysis (fully quantitative) for PKU screening. A very small number still use the traditional Guthrie bacterial inhibition method (semi-quantitative). Some also use high-performance liquid chromatography for PKU screening. CH screening includes enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and enzyme immunofluorescence assay. In the past decade or so, developed countries have adopted tandem mass spectrometry technology to screen about 25 kinds of inherited metabolic defects, including amino acid, organic acid, and fatty acid metabolism disorders, greatly improving screening efficiency. Tandem mass spectrometry technology is the future development direction of neonatal disease screening.

(7) Processing of screening results To ensure the quality of testing, the testing is carried out by a dedicated person. For negative test results, the city and county management centers are generally not notified. For suspected positive cases, they will be re-examined. If they are still positive, they will be fed back to the city and county centers. The city and county centers must cooperate in the recall (or follow-up), re-examination and confirmation of positive cases.

(8) Case tracking: Children diagnosed with the disease should be given long-term and correct drug treatment or diet control in a timely manner to ensure the social effect of neonatal disease screening.

We all know that once a disease occurs in the body, it can be discovered and treated early, and can be well controlled and cured. The above is an introduction to the methods of screening for two diseases in newborns. After understanding it, parents must look at the screening for two diseases correctly, so that the baby's physical health can be checked and it will not affect the baby's physical and mental health during the baby's growth.