Newborn screening for congenital hypothyroidism in institutional set up in an urban area in odisha

Abstract

Background: Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is the most common preventable cause of mental retardation. Clinical manifesta-tions of CH are not usually manifested at birth and remain undetected. The undetected CH infants show signs and symptoms of mental retardation at later age. Newborn screening for CH is a cheap and affordable tool to detect CH at birth to prevent mental retardation. There is the paucity of studies for detection of CH in this region of Odisha, hence this study. Objective: To ascertain the incidence of CH in newborn babies and the effect of different variables on the level of TSH at birth. Methods: This is retrospective observational study in babies born in selected centre of Odisha and newborns attending for a normal health check-up within 3-5 days. Estimation of TSH level from venous blood samples collected from 1530 neonates, included in this study, at 72-120 hours after birth and from 163 newborns, recalled for reestimation, at 21-30 days. Results: Out of 1530 neonates, no case of CH was found. Incidence of CH was zero. However, different variants influenced the level of TSH. Level of TSH decreased with the advancement of age. Neonates with male sex, low birth weight and those born by vaginal delivery had a significantly higher TSH. Gestational age and parity did not affect TSH level.163 neonates probably had Transitional Hypothyroidism. Conclusion: CH can be detected at an affordable cost which outweighs the cost of investigation and treatment of CH and mental retardation in later life.