Sir.—We were interested in the article by Allen et al1 in the February 1988 issue of AJDC about neonatal screening for congenital hypothyroidism (CH) because their strategy is totally different from ours. Some of the modifications they proposed to improve CH screening are already included in the French program in respect to the organization model that was chosen ten years ago.2 In each region, the same team (pediatricians and biochemists) is responsible for the screening and the follow-up.
The area covered by our center represents 79000 infants born each year in the Nord Pas-de-Calais region (in northern France), which is similar in size to that of Wisconsin and allows the following comparisons.
Patients and Methods.—Infants undergo filter paper thyrotropin (TSH) testing on day 5 of life. Those with a TSH level higher than 30 mU/L are retested for TSH (in duplicate) on the same sample. A TSH