Possible effects of neonatal vitamin B12 status on TSH-screening program: A cross-sectional study from Turkey

Background: In this study we evaluated whether vitamin B12 deficiency affects neonatal screening (NS) for congenital hypothyroidism (CH). Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted from 2010 to 2011. A total of 10,740 infants were born in our hospital in this period. Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) was tested for NS and neonates with abnormal screening results (TSH > 20 mIU/L) were re-examined. Two hundred and twenty-nine re-called subjects (re-call rate 2.3%) were compared to 77 randomly selected newborns with normal TSH screening among these term newborns in terms of serum TSH, free T4, vitamin B12 and homocysteine status. Results: Of the 229 re-called subjects, 11 infants with CH and 21 infants with transient TSH elevation were detected. In the normal TSH screening group, only two infants were diagnosed with transient TSH elevation. Mean serum B12 levels were 126.4 +/- 48.7 pg/mL and 211.9 +/- 127.9 pg/mL in the positive TSH-screening group and the control group, respectively. There was a significant difference between positive and normal TSH-screening groups in regard to serum TSH, free T4, serum B12 and homocysteine levels. Conclusions: We found a significant vitamin B12 deficiency in positive TSH-screening infants. Beside the crucial role of vitamin B12 in newborns, deficiency seems to increase the recall rates of infants in an NS program for CH.