The effects of gestational age and birth weight on false-positive newborn-screening rates.

Objective: Newborn-screening false-positive rates (FPRs) are disproportionately increased in preterm infants. The objective of this study was to determine variation in newborn screening FPRs according to birth weight and gestational age. Our secondary objective was to examine the effect of postnatal age on FPRs in preterm infants.

Finding blunders in thyroid testing: experience in newborns.

We evaluated thyroxin (T4) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) data along with clinical information from 600,000 newborns. We looked for certain combinations of tests and clinical data that were questionable and possibly mistaken. Our approach suggests that certain combinations of test results, especially the presence of missing results deserved further evaluation for possible blunders.