The baby's heel test

Two blood samples taken from the baby's heel, muestras one at birth and once a week, are what are needed to make your newborn the heel test, a Screening test that detects the possible presence of congenital diseases in the newborn. Detected in time, these diseases are treated and thus they are emitted that cause brain injuries or psychic disabilities. This small and fleshy area of the foot is used to extract a few drops of blood from the newborn, which will then be analyzed in the laboratory to determine if the child has been born with a congenital metabolic disease. The first extraction takes place within the first 48 hours of life and the second, around the seventh day of life.How is the heel test done to the baby?
To obtain the blood sample, al the baby is punctured in the lateral area of the heel

and the sample is collected on a blotting paper. The circle of the blotting paper should be completely impregnated with blood until it reaches the other side. The sample is dried with ambient heat.

The laboratory techniques used are not exactly the same in all countries, not even in all the autonomous communities within the same nation. In most of the maternity hospitals, a sample is taken in the maternity hospital, before the medical discharge, for the study of hypothyroidism and, a few days later, a second sample for other diseases is collected in the health center. In other places, a single blood sample or sample is taken on the third day of life. After an exhaustive laboratory analysis, el the result is sent to the parents to confirm that the baby is well

and that they do not have any disease with the negative result, or to warn them that they should go to the specialist and start taking a series of measures aimed at acting quickly in the solution of certain health problems for which time is a fundamental factor. Proof that protects the life of the newborn Some of the metabolic diseases, such as hypothyroidism or phenylcetouria, do not give symptoms at birth and when they appear so that doctors can identify them

it is too late because they have caused irreparable damage to the babyCongenital diseases can exist from the formation of the embryo and constitute an important group of deficiencies. Its origin is found in genetic errors or in exogenous, toxic factors, drugs or radiation, which act through the mother's organism.

Improvements in the heel test

The heel test in the baby or natal screeninghas been in existence for more than 30 years and started in New Zealand. Since then, the results have improved considerably. Thus, while in 2009 only seven diseases were detected, today, with the application of new technologies

it is possible to diagnose more than thirty hereditary ills from a blood sample of the newborn.