heel prick?

Question

Is CF tested during heel prick?

Answer

Dear questioner,

Neither in Belgium, nor in Holland at this point in time, has systematic screening for CF in a newborn started.

But indeed in a blood sample taken shortly after birth, the occurrence of some specific diseases can be evaluated. Since a long time this screening has been introduced for congenital hypothyroidism (insufficient activity of the thyroid gland), phenylketonuria and some other rare metabolic disorders. Criteria to be included in neonatal screening are amongst others: disease needs to be detected reliably, the disease is difficult to diagnose merely on clinical symptoms and is often missed, the disease leads to important abnormalities that can be avoided if the diagnosis is made early and a treatment is started and of course a cost benefit evaluation. CF fulfills many of these criteria and that is why in several countries around us screening for CF is included in the newborn screening panel.

For CF it is always a stepwise testing and different screens or algorithms are being used. The majority of the programs are based on determination of immunoreactive tripsine as a first step and if this is increased an evaluation of the most frequent CF mutations.

In the UK, in Poland, in the US and in France screening occurs on a national level since many years. There is thus already a lot of experience with these programs. In Belgium, there has not yet been a political decision when CF screening will start. In the Netherlands it was recently decided that from May 1st 2011 on, all newborns will be screened for CF by heel prick.
Kind regards
K. De Boeck

02.12.2010