Four Decades of Newborn Screening: A Historical Perspective of Laboratory Practices

Abstract

The personal experience of 36 years in charge of the Newborn Screening Laboratory in Galicia and the consequences of the recent advancement of sampling from 3 days to 24 hours of the newborn's life are reviewed. The implication in the results of the assay of reducers in urine with the Mandelin reagent and its alternatives is commented. The implication in the effects of TSH in blood and the possible ways of dealing with the situation. Since 1978, the Newborn Screening Program in Galicia has maintained the urine sample on paper (Berry-Woolf specimen) and blood on paper (Guthrie specimen), so the possibilities of the urine sample are discussed, which are not being taken advantage of. The ignorance of LI Woolf's time at GOSH, where what brought us here was gestated, and his recommendations for preparing the diet, to which due attention was not paid. The contributions of the in vitro diagnostic industry, the concepts associated with Clinical Chemistry, and its professionals' work are discussed.