Test Ordering Information
How is the Supplemental Newborn Screening Done?
The screening tests require a few small drops of blood, which are collected from each newborn usually on the second day of life. This is done by a heel stick and spotting the blood on a paper card, which is then sent to Mayo Medical Laboratories. This sample is obtained at the same time as that for the state-mandated screening, however the spotting is done on a separate card. Your state-mandated testing should be sent to your State-screening site.
Supply
T493 - Mayo Supplemental Newborn Screening Card (absorbent filter paper)
Method
Blood is dripped on a filter paper card following a heel prick. The blood is left to dry before sending the filter paper card along with pertinent demographic information to the screening laboratory. A 3/16-inch disk is punched out of the blood spot onto a 96-well plate. Then, the amino acids and acylcarnitines are extracted by the addition of methanol and known concentrations of isotopically labeled amino acids and acylcarnitines as internal standards. The extract is moved to another 96-well plate, dried under a stream of nitrogen and derivatized by the addition of n-butanol HCl. The amino acids and acylcarnitines are measured as their butyl esters by electrospray MS/MS. The concentrations of the analytes are established by computerized comparison of ion intensities of these analytes to that of the respective internal standards. (Chace DH, Naylor EW: Expansion of newborn screening programs using automated tandem mass spectrometry. MRDD Res Rev 5:150-154, 1999)
Specimen Required
Refer to the Specimen Requirements for Test Code #82594 in the Test Catalog for details
How to Order
Detailed steps for submitting specimens are available under Order Tests