Screening for congenital hypothyroidism in Shahr-e-Kord: prevalence and recall rate during 2006-2014

As the congenital hypothyroidism is preventable only by the timely diagnosis of the disease, the aim of present study is to evaluate the results of the screening program carried out during 2006-2014.
One hundred and eleven out of the 54,468 newborn screened for this cross sectional study during 2006 to 2014 were identified as the cases. Fisher's exact test at a significance level of 5% was used for the analysis.
Considering the prevalence rate of 2 per 1000 births, the rate for girls and boys were 1.9 and 2.2 per 1000 births, respectively. The difference between the rates was not statistically significant. The recall rate was 46.65 per 1000 births. Twenty seven percent of the patients had a positive history of disease and 27.9% the familial relationship. The highest prevalence of the disease (33.4%) was in the summer.
The findings disclosed that the inaccuracy of the initial sampling from the heel of the cases. So for the reduction of sampling errors and not wasting the golden time of treatment, it is mandatory to employ the trained personnel for initial sampling. Although above the international standard level, the overall prevalence of the disease during these years was the same rate in the country.