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Clinical Chemistry 49: 336, 2003; 10.1373/49.2.336
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(Clinical Chemistry. 2003;49:336.)
© 2003 American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc.

Letters

Commentary on: Use of Microsphere Immunoassay for Simplified Multianalyte Screening of Thyrotropin and Thyroxine in Dried Blood Spots from Newborns

Kenneth A. Pass

New York State Department of Health, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY 12201-0509


To the Editor:

In their letter, Lukacs et al. present an interesting modification and improvement of the procedure described previously by Bellisario et al. (1), using the Luminex Xmap system to simultaneously assay for thyroxine (T4) and thyrotropin (TSH) in a Guthrie specimen. Their innovation builds on the earlier work and, importantly, negates the necessity for multiple wash steps while maintaining acceptable sensitivity and specificity. This will greatly facilitate automation of these tests, an important aspect for newborn screening programs, in which thousands of specimens are processed each day. The concept of simultaneous measurement of T4 and TSH enhances the specificity of hypothyroidism screening in newborns, at the same time reducing the workload by combining two tests into a single procedure. Their comments concerning the use of a TSH:T4 ratio are interesting and worthy of follow-up.

The use of ratios such as this has been helpful in increasing the specificity of other newborn assays, such as for phenylketonuria (PKU) (2). With the addition of a bead-based test for 17-hydroxyprogesterone, the serum marker for congenital adrenal hyperplasia, and immunoreactive trypsinogen, the serum marker for cystic fibrosis, to the T4/TSH assay, a complete endocrine panel for newborn screening could be accomplished in this system in a single assay tube. This multiplex testing offers newborn screening programs tremendous opportunities for expanding the screening panel without increasing the workload.


References

  1. Bellisario R, Colinas RJ, Pass KA. Simultaneous measurement of thyroxine (T4) and thyrotropin (TSH) from newborn dried blood spot specimens using a multiplexed fluorescent immunoassay. Clin Chem 2000;46:1422-1424.[Free Full Text]
  2. Reilly AA, Bellisario R, Pass KA. Multivariate discrimination for phenylketonuria (PKU) and non-PKU hyperphenylalaninemia after analysis of newborns’ dried blood-spot specimens for six amino acids by ion-exchange chromatography. Clin Chem 1998;44:317-326.[Abstract/Free Full Text]




This Article
Right arrow Extract Freely available
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit an electronic Letter to
the Editor about this paper
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Pass, K. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Pass, K. A.
Related Collections
Right arrow Molecular Diagnostics and Genetics
Right arrow Pediatric Clinical Chemistry
Right arrow Endocrinology and Metabolism

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