Neonatal screening for cystic fibrosis

BMJ 1998;317:411 ( 8 August )

Letters

Neonatal screening for cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis should be added to diseases sought in all newborn babies

Early diagnosis allows option of prenatal diagnosis in subsequent pregnancies

Early diagnosis is important to parents even if it makes little difference to outcome

Cystic fibrosis should be added to diseases sought in all newborn babies

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Wald and Morris's editorial on neonatal screening for cystic fibrosis is a good example of the different viewpointsheld by doctors concerned with public health and by cliniciansand highlights the need for both groups to have input into healthservice policy.¹ They reviewed papers describing nutritionalbenefits of neonatal diagnosis of cystic fibrosis ² ³ withextrapolations predicting long term individual health benefitsand short to medium term costs of a screening programme. The differencesbetween screened and unscreened patients were small in terms ofgrowth during the first 10 years. Healthcare purchasers are moreeasily persuaded by short term financial arguments than by longterm predictions, particularly when the predictions involve manyuncertainties, but clinicians can advance other persuasive argumentsin favour of screening newborn babies.

Firstly, for parents to be confronted with the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis in their baby is always unpleasant. The shockcan be mitigated . . . [Full text of this article]

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Neonatal screening for cystic fibrosis: Nicholas J Wald and Joan K Morris
BMJ 1998 316: 404-405. [Extract] [Full Text]

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