Screening for Congenital Hypothyroidism: 4 Years of Experience

Congenital hypothyroidism is almost the ideal model suited for a mass screening program. If untreated, the disease leads to irrecuperable mental and physical retardation (Raiti and Newns 1971; Klein et al. 1972); early diagnosis is difficult because of the subtle clinical signs. The incidence was thought to be important (1:5000 to 1:10 000 births) (Kenney et al. 1975), and treatment with synthetic thyroid hormones is available. Thus, one had only to develop the methodology to insure early diagnosis of the disease.