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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Babies' blood tests can end in false-positive screening scares

After seven years of unexplained infertility, Ann Najdek-Andrada finally had a son, a baby boy who seemed as perfect as she’d always imagined.
But that fantasy was shattered when Gianni was two weeks old. That’s when the call came saying the child had tested positive for cystic fibrosis â€" and that it would take nearly four months to find out for sure.
“After everything we’d been through, I was thinking to myself ‘Why does this have to happen?’� said the 34-year-old Mastic, N.Y., mom. “My husband even cried when I was explaining the whole thing to him.�
The weeks dragged by, with Najdek-Andrada juggling the care of a newborn with constant worry about his health.
“Absolutely, waiting was the worst part,� she said. “You’re living in uncertainty.�
When Gianni was finally old enough to have the sweat test that confirms CF, an inherited lung disease that can lead to disability and early death, the news was good. Gianni’s initial newborn screening test was actually a false positive, a kind of mistaken result experts say may affect as many as 200,000 babies in the U.S. each year.

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