Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
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 PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by TEN KATE, L P
Right arrow Articles by ANDERS, G J P A
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by TEN KATE, L P
Right arrow Articles by ANDERS, G J P A
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 1978 Oxford University Press

research-article

Should we Screen all Newborns for Cystic Fibrosis?

L P TEN KATE1, I FEENSTRA-DE GOOYER2, G PLOEG-DE GROOT3, W L GOUW4 and G J P A ANDERS5

1,2,3,4,5 Department of Human Genetics, State University of Groningen Ant. Deusinglasn 4, Groningen, The Netherlands

To assess the value of detecting albumin in meconium as a screening procedure for cystic fibrosis (CF) 68 000 meconium samples were examined by BM Meconium TestŪ, single radial immunodiffusion and benzidine reaction. The specificity and sensitivity of this combination of tests were 99.67% and 78.57% respectively. The prevalence of CF at birth was confirmed as 1:3600 in this country. This low prevalence resulted in a relatively high number of false positives. Therefore, a positive test result has a low predictive value (3.39%) and this is a serious drawback of the method. The experiences and opinions of 37 local paediatricians about the screening programme were evaluated by a simple questionnaire. Gold's decision rule was applied. The least relative cost of misclassification justifying a mass-screening programme was 3 times higher than the actual relative cost as suggested by the aggregate opinion of paediatricians in the region. These results support the view that with the methods used screening may have more disadvantages than not screening.

Received 25 May 1978


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Eur Respir JHome page
M.E. Merelle, J.P. Schouten, J. Gerritsen, and J.E. Dankert-Roelse
Influence of neonatal screening and centralized treatment on long-term clinical outcome and survival of CF patients
Eur. Respir. J., August 1, 2001; 18(2): 306 - 315.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.