The Neonatal heel prick reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Neonatal heel prick

The neonatal heel prick is a common procedure for taking a blood sample from the heel of newborn infants.

The blood samples can be used for a variety of tests, including:

• Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) to detect hypothyroidism and hence prevent cretinism.
• Trypsin to detect cystic fibrosis.
• Detection of phenylketonuria, an enzyme deficiency that can impair brain development).

Other potential tests include:

• A test for galactosemia

With genetic tests becoming more common, a wide variety of tests may use the blood drawn by this method.

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