In May 2008, the State Board of Health unanimously approved adding 15 new disorders to the newborn screening panel in Washington State. We have been working hard to implement the changes as soon as possible. On July 21, 2008 we began screening for 14 of the new conditions. The last condition, tyrosinemia type I (TYR-I), requires a more complex testing procedure and will not be added until mid-August. No extra blood will be needed to test for the new conditions, and there will be no fee increase, as all 15 additional conditions can be tested at the same time by instruments used currently in our laboratory.

New Reporting Format

The first page of the report is very similar to our past reporting format. The table has been slightly modified (see table below).

The reverse side of the first page contains a table with normal ranges for the primary analytes of amino acid, fatty acid or organic acid disorders.

If any of the primary analytes are abnormal, the mailer will contain an extra page with results for the abnormal profile. It will contain values for the primary and secondary analytes for the specific disorder.