Georgia uses post-analytical tools through Collaborative Laboratory Integrated Reports (CLIR) to triage abnormal newborn screening (NBS) results for follow-up. Condition specific tools are used to assign each case a risk level, which is used to guide follow-up recommendations. Follow-up recommendations include assessment by the child's primary care provider as well as testing, either a repeat NBS or confirmatory testing. Triaging abnormal cases using these tools has been advantageous in managing the workflow for the follow-up team, as well as prioritizing cases that appropriately require more attention and resources. The initial goal in utilizing these tools was to reduce the amount of confirmatory testing, particularly for disorders where there are many false positives. We assessed the performance of these tools retrospectively for three of the most commonly detected conditions by tandem mass spectrometry in Georgia: phenylketonuria, medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency and very long chain dehydrogenase deficiency. The post-analytical tools appropriately assigned all true positive cases to the higher levels of follow-up testing and reduced the level of intervention for a significant number of cases as well. Based on the experience gained from our utilization of the tools in the follow-up program, we are well situated to move forward with using the tools in a more prospective manner, and reduce the number of cases that will be reported, rather than just assigning resources appropriately at follow-up. Post-analytical tools are an improvement over trying to capture the variation in the newborn population using multiple cutoffs. It also easily identifies significant abnormalities that are unrelated to inherited disease, such as large amino acid elevations due to total parenteral nutrition.
Krabbe disease (KD) is part of newborn screening (NBS) in 11 states with at least one additional state preparing to screen. In July 2021, KD was re-nominated for addition to the federal Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP) in the USA with a two-tiered strategy based on psychosine (PSY) as the determinant if an NBS result is positive or negative after a first-tier test revealed decreased galactocerebrosidase activity. Nine states currently screening for KD include PSY analysis in their screening strategy. However, the nomination was rejected in February 2023 because of perceived concerns about a high false positive rate, potential harm to newborns with an uncertain prognosis, and inadequate data on presymptomatic treatment benefit or harm. To address the concern about false positive NBS results, a survey was conducted of the eight NBS programs that use PSY and have been screening for KD for at least 1 year. Seven of eight states responded. We found that: (1) the use of PSY is variable; (2) when modeling the data based on the recommended screening strategy for KD, and applying different cutoffs for PSY, each state could virtually eliminate false positive results without major impact on sensitivity; (3) the reason for the diverse strategies appears to be primarily the difficulty of state programs to adjust screening algorithms due to the concern of possibly missing even an adult-onset case following a change that focuses on infantile and early infantile KD. Contracts with outside vendors and the effort/cost of making changes to a program’s information systems can be additional obstacles. We recommend that programs review their historical NBS outcomes for KD with their advisory committees and make transparent decisions on whether to accept false positive results for such a devastating condition or to adjust their procedures to ensure an efficient, effective, and manageable NBS program for KD.
Since the UK commenced newborn screening for isovaleric acidemia in 2015, changes in prescribing have increased the incidence of false positive (FP) results due to pivaloylcarnitine. A review of screening results between 2015-22 identified 24 true positive (TP) and 84 FP cases, with pivalate interference confirmed in 76/84. Initial C5 carnitine (C5C) did not discriminate between FP and TP with median (range) C5C of 2.9 (2.0 - 9.6) and 4.0 (1.8 - >70) µmol/L respectively and neither did Precision Newborn Screening via Collaborative Laboratory Integrated Reports (CLIR), which identified only 1/47 FP cases. However, among the TP cases, disease severity showed a correlation with initial C5C, in ‘asymptomatic’ individuals (n=17), demonstrating a median (range) C5C of 3.0 (1.8 – 7.1) whilst ‘clinically affected’ patients (n=7), showed a median (range) C5C of 13.9 (7.7 - > 70) µmol/L. These findings allowed the introduction of dual cut-off values into the screening algorithm to reduce the incidence of FPs, with initial C5C results ≥ 5 µmol/L triggering urgent referral, and those > 2.0 and < 5.0 µmol/L prompting 2nd tier C5-isobar testing. This will avoid delayed referral in babies at particular risk whilst reducing the FP rate for the remainder.
ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVArticleNEXTEffects of lithium salts on the stereochemistry of ketone enolization by lithium 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidide (LiTMP). A convenient method for highly E-selective enolate formationPatricia L. Hall, James H. Gilchrist, and David B. CollumCite this: J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1991, 113, 25, 9571–9574Publication Date (Print):December 1, 1991Publication History Published online1 May 2002Published inissue 1 December 1991https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ja00025a023https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00025a023research-articleACS PublicationsRequest reuse permissionsArticle Views2021Altmetric-Citations145LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail Other access optionsGet e-Alertsclose Get e-Alerts