Abstract

In the first trimester of 1990, 49601 newborn babies were screened for congenital hypothyroidism. In 695 cases (1.40%) a second heel card was requested. In this group 103 babies were pre- or dysmature. For 50 children no data on birth weight or duration of pregnancy were provided. 391 children were screened according to the so called modified procedure. Of the 1187 samples mentioned in Table 2 in 52 cases the date of sampling and in 3 cases the date of birth was deleted. There is some variation between the laboratories with respect to the T4-level (Tables 3 and 4). The daily means in this trimester range from 122-146 pg/punch. In contrast the results obtained with the external quality control samples show a smaller range. After 37 trimesters of screening the general conclusion is that the program functions well.