CORRELATION BETWEEN CORD BLOOD TSH LEVELS AND TSH LEVELS ON DAY 3 OF LIFE IN SCREENING FOR CONGENITAL HYPOTHYROIDISM.

Introduction: Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is the most common preventable cause of mental retardation. Delayed treatment results in irreversible mental retardation and various neuropsychological decits. Screening for CH is a routinely done by measuring thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level either from cord blood (CBTSH) or blood collected on Day 3 of life. The ideal time to screen for congenital hypothyroidism is between 3 to 5 days of life due to TSH surge immediately after birth which subsides after rst 36 hours. Cord blood can easily be collected without pricking the newborn. Aims: We have undertaken this study to determine whether there is any correlation between cord blood TSH levels and day 3 TSH levels in screening for Congenital Hypothyroidism. Material & Method: It is a cross sectional study conducted in tertiary care centre in North Maharashtra. 793 Newborns were included in Study. Babies with clinically detected major congenital malformation or with Maternal thyroid disease, including euthyroid goitre had been excluded from study. Results: Mean cord blood TSH values was 7.56 mIU/L while Mean D3TSH value was 5.29 mIU/L. Out of 793, 775 (97.7%) cases had CBTSH value <=20 mIU/L while only 18 (2.3%) cases had CBTSH value of more than 20 mIU/L. Out of 793, 790 (99.6%) cases had D3TSH value <=20 mIU/L while only 3 (0.4%) cases had D3TSH value of more than 20 mIU/L. Out of the total 18 cases with CBTSH values of > 20 mIU/L, 3 cases (16.7%) had D3TSH > 20 mIU/L and out of 775 cases with CBTSH value 20 (p<0.01). Conclusion: Asignicant positive correlation was observed between cord blood TSH values with blood TSH levels of new born on day 3 (p<0.01).