History of Newborn Screening for Cystic Fibrosis—The Early Years

Abstract

This review summarises the trajectory of neonatal screening strategies for the detection of cystic fibrosis (CF) using the measurement of Immunoreactive Trypsin (IRT) in dried blood spots (DBS) from 1979 until the beginning of the 21st century when newborn screening (NBS) programmes started to spread throughout many countries, using IRT measurement combined with a CF genotype analysis of DBS.

Keywords

• newborn screening
• immunoreactive trypsin(ogen)
• dried blood spot
• radioimmunoassay
• dna