Newborn Screening
Newborn screening is a public health program provided by most of the countries around the world aimed at screening newborns for a list of serious genetic and metabolic disorders [1]. Early diagnosis of those conditions can help prevent their further development which untreated often results in brain damage, organ damage and even death.
Nowadays, a routine neonatal screening procedure requires that a health professional takes a few drops of blood from the baby’s heel, applies them onto filter paper and sends such prepared samples to a laboratory for a number of analytical tests. Current sample preparation taking place before analysis may be labor-intensive, time-consuming and not very precise due to carry-over when processed with traditional “punch-and-elute” methodology. Most laboratories still perform the MS analysis from one DBS disc and the biological assays from a second disc. Application of DBS-MS 500 will standardize the sample preparation process, while also simplifying the workflow and eliminating any manual working steps.
[1] B. L. Therrell, C. D. Padilla, J. G. Loeber, I. Kneisser, A. Saadallah, G. J. C. Borrajo, and J. Adams, “Current status of newborn screening worldwide: 2015,” Semin. Perinatol., vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 171–187, 2015.