Thyroid screening in the newborn: Utah experience.

Since 1979, the State Department of Health Laboratory of Utah has screened 108,256 newborn infants for hypothyroidism. The incidence of diagnosed hypothyroid children during this period was 1 per 3,800 live births. Utilizing a normal range of serum thyroid hormone levels in newborn infants of 8.0 to 26.0 micrograms per dl, the incidence of normal infants initially considered hypothyroid was less than one percent. A review of our three years experience is presented.