Primary Thyroid Stimulating Hormone Screening for Congenital Hypothyroidism in King Abdullah Hospital, Bisha, Saudi Arabia

Background Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) concentration in cord blood measured at birth has been proposed as an indicator of congenital hypothyroidism (CH). Elevated TSH levels at birth were associated with cognitive and psychomotor disorders among young children. Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the epidemiology of CH using cord blood TSH screening among 2501 newborn infants in the period from January to November 2016 in Bisha Province, Saudi Arabia. Methodology This cross-sectional, hospital-based study was conducted at King Abdullah Hospital, Bisha, which is a secondary care referral district general hospital with 400 beds. All neonates born in the designed period were included and screened according to the standard CH screening protocol. Data was collected from all neonates born in the designed period. The screening was performed according to the standard CH screening protocol. After birth, cord blood specimens were used. TSH was measured by Perkin Elmer ELISA machine. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). A p-value of less than or equal to 0.05 was considered significant. Main results A total of 1308 (52.3%) neonates were males, while 1193 (47.7%) were females. Serum TSH levels were ranged from 0.01-73.9 µU/ml. The mean ± SD was (7.60 ± 6.02 µU/ml); the cutoff point was 25 µU/ml. Conclusion The prevalence of congenital hypothyroidism among Saudi neonates in Bisha Province is 1:834, which is the highest in the rejoin. The prevalence of hypothyroidism from the total screened population was (0.12%). We recommended screening with special consideration to those with high TSH in the primary screening.