The University of Florida sickle cell screening program for neonates: design and results.

During the first 18 months of a pilot program for sickle cell screening at the University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, 2,058 black neonates were screened. An incidence of homozygous sickle disease of 0.5 percent was greater than that expected or predicted by carrier frequency (8.3 percent). Fifty percent of all infants with abnormal cord blood electrophoreses were retested. All infants with actual homozygous disease or other clinically significant variants had confirmation of their diagnosis and were channeled for appropriate care. A change of phenotypic diagnosis based on a follow-up sample was made in eight cases. Errors were either interpretational or through contamination of cord blood samples by maternal blood at the time of delivery. Although location of infants for retesting after discharge was made more difficult by the largely rural composition of the target population, certain measures were taken to improve patient retrieval: use of public health personnel; enlistment of the aid of private physicians in the community; and inclusion of information regarding the screening program in the hospital discharge packets of black mothers. It is concluded that screening programs serving rural populations can adequately identify infants with abnormal hemoglobin patterns while educating and caring for families of these infants in a cost-efficient and effective manner.