Newborn Screening by Tandem Mass Spectrometry: Gaining Experience

Abstract

Major expansion of newborn screening for inherited met-abolic disorders is taking place across the US and around the world as newer analytical technology is applied. Historically, each disorder to be screened required a separate test with associated costs and requirement for a portion of the dried-blood-spot specimen from a heel stick. This limitation of the existing tests was partially responsible for the limitation of mandated newborn screening in the US to a small number of disorders (usually three to seven, depending on the state).