Neonatal Screening Program, Study of Congenital Hypothyroidism Cases

Introduction: Congenital hypothyroidism is one of the most common preventable causes of mental retardation.The clinical manifestations are so subtle that many newborns are undiagnosed at birth. Aim of study:Studying neonatal screening in Baghdad city and cases of hypothyroidism in screened infants, regarding; clinical presentation, treatment and follow up of cases.Patients and methods: A retrospective descriptive study was done in Baghdad city for babies screened over the period 1 st of Nov 2015 to 31 st of Jan 2016.Data about screening program was collected over the period of 1 st April 2013 to 31 st October 2015 and 1 st May 2013 to 31 st October 2015 respectively.Results: The total number of screened newborns was 441206 (249835 in Al-Rusafa and 191371 newborns in Al-Karkh) with average screening coverage of 59.9%.The overall proportion of occurrence of congenital hypothyroidism was 1:2141, phenylketonuria 1:6787, and galactosemia 1:21009.The study group included screened newborns patients from Al-Karkh hospitals (24 patients).The female : Male ratio patients in Al-Karkh was 1.6:1.There was a significant association of positive linear growth increment in symptomatic group of patients (P 0.044).A positive change in linear growth showed significantly younger aged patients (P 0.025) and higher admission TSH level than no change (P 0.001).There was a significantly higher level of admission TSH in delayed developmental milestone in the study group of patients (P 0.016).Conclusion: *Efforts to bypass the drawbacks of work routines *Enhance and encourage public education for notification of confirmed cases to attend tertiary centers