Immunoreactive trypsinogen screening for cystic fibrosis: characterization of infants with a false-positive screening test.

Blood immunoreactive trypsinogen (IRT) is elevated in newborns with cystic fibrosis (CF) and has been used as a neonatal screening test. However, not only is the benefit of early diagnosis unknown, but also the sensitivity, specificity, and time related decline of IRT values have yet to be comprehensively evaluated. This report describes the characteristics of infants with a false-positive IRT in our experience with CF screening of 87,000 infants. The IRT value was elevated in 92 newborns; 13 had a confirmed diagnosis of CF by quantitative pilocarpine iontophoresis sweat testing, and 79 infants did not have CF and were therefore classified as false positives by IRT screening. In order to test the hypothesis that perinatal stress factors are associated with high neonatal IRT values, we evaluated Apgar scores at 1 and 5 minutes. We found that the scores of false-positive infants were significantly lower (P = 0.0004 and P = 0.0102 at 1 and 5 minutes, respectively), compared with infants in the general population. While perinatal asphyxia as reflected by low Apgar scores is an associated factor accounting for an elevated IRT value, the majority of non-CF newborns with an elevated IRT have normal Apgar scores.