Neonatal heel pricks

Neonatal heal pricks is a procedure used in many industrialised countries where a blood sample is taken from the heel of neonates[?].

This 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
• Detect phenylketonuria (an enzyme deficiency that can impair brain development).

Other potential tests include:

• A test for galactosemia[?]

With genetic tests[?] becoming more common generally, there may be a wide range of genetic tests available to Neonatal heel pricks in the future.