[Suitability of the Weidemann test for galactose in mass screening (author's transl)]

With slight practical modification, especially in the preparation of blood samples on filter paper in place of liquid blood samples, it was possible to adapt the determination of galactose dehydrogenase (Weidemann, G. (1971), this Journal 9,527) to mass screening. The technique is described, and the first results are briefly discussed and compared with those obtained over the years in our screening program with proven the Guthrie test (1): The dehydrogenase test is much quicker and shows a higher substrate specificity than the Guthrie test (duration 2 hours compared with 44 hours; false positive results of 16.87 mmol/l galactose or higher 1:42231 compared with 1:3519). It is, however, less sensitive (16.87 mmol/l compared with 1.69 mmol/l galactose), so that a combination of both tests would seem appropriate for the mass screening of new borns.