Newborn Screening for Primary Congenital Hypothyroidism: Estimating Test Performance at Different TSH Thresholds.
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ABSTRACT: Context:Active surveillance of primary congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in a multiethnic population with established newborn bloodspot screening. Objective:To estimate performance of newborn screening for CH at different test thresholds and calculate incidence of primary CH. Design:Prospective surveillance from June 2011 to June 2012 with 3-year follow-up of outcomes. Relative likelihood ratios (rLRs) estimated to compare bloodspot TSH test thresholds of 6 mU/L and 8 mU/L, with the nationally recommended standard of 10 mU/L for a presumptive positive result. Setting:UK National Health Service. Patients:Clinician notification of children aged <5 years investigated following clinical presentation or presumptive positive screening result. Main Outcome Measure(s):Permanent primary CH status determined by clinician report of continuing T4 requirement at 3-year follow-up. Results:A total of 629 newborns (58.3% girls; 58.7% white ethnicity) were investigated following presumptive positive screening result and 21 children (52.4% girls; 52.4% white) after clinical presentation; 432 remained on treatment at 3-year follow-up. Permanent CH incidence was 5.3 (95% CI, 4.8 to 5.8) per 10,000 infants. With use of locally applied thresholds, sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value were 96.76%, 99.97%, and 66.88%, respectively. Compared with a TSH threshold of 10 mU/L, positive rLRs for 8 mU/L and 6 mU/L were 1.20 (95% CI, 0.82 to 1.75) and 0.52 (95% CI, 0.38 to 0.72), and negative rLRs were 0.11 (95% CI, 0.03 to 0.36) and 0.11 (95% CI, 0.06 to 0.20), respectively. Conclusions:Screening program performance is good, but a TSH threshold of 8 mU/L appears superior to the current national standard (10 mU/L) and requires further evaluation. Further research should explore the implications of transient CH for screening policy.
SUBMITTER: Knowles RL
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6179177 | biostudies-other | 2018 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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