• Antonia Kwan, Joseph A Church, Morton J Cowan, Rajni Agarwal, Neena Kapoor, Donald B Kohn, David B Lewis, Sean A McGhee, Theodore B Moore, E Richard Stiehm, Matthew Porteus, Constantino P Aznar, Robert Currier, Fred Lorey, and Jennifer M Puck.
• Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Francisco and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, San Francisco, CA 94143-0519, USA.
• J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 2013 Jul 1; 132 (1): 140-50.

BackgroundAssay of T-cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) in dried blood spots obtained at birth permits population-based newborn screening (NBS) for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID).ObjectiveWe sought to report the first 2 years of TREC NBS in California.MethodsSince August 2010, California has conducted SCID NBS. A high-throughput TREC quantitative PCR assay with DNA isolated from routine dried blood spots was developed. Samples with initial low TREC numbers had repeat DNA isolation with quantitative PCR for TRECs and a genomic control, and immunophenotyping was performed within the screening program for infants with incomplete or abnormal results. Outcomes were tracked.ResultsOf 993,724 infants screened, 50 (1/19,900 [0.005%]) had significant T-cell lymphopenia. Fifteen (1/66,250) required hematopoietic cell or thymus transplantation or gene therapy; these infants had typical SCID (n = 11), leaky SCID or Omenn syndrome (n = 3), or complete DiGeorge syndrome (n = 1). Survival to date in this group is 93%. Other T-cell lymphopenic infants had variant SCID or combined immunodeficiency (n = 6), genetic syndromes associated with T-cell impairment (n = 12), secondary T-cell lymphopenia (n = 9), or preterm birth (n = 8). All T-cell lymphopenic infants avoided live vaccines and received appropriate interventions to prevent infections. TREC test specificity was excellent: only 0.08% of infants required a second test, and 0.016% required lymphocyte phenotyping by using flow cytometry.ConclusionsTREC NBS in California has achieved early diagnosis of SCID and other conditions with T-cell lymphopenia, facilitating management and optimizing outcomes. Furthermore, NBS has revealed the incidence, causes, and follow-up of T-cell lymphopenia in a large diverse population.Copyright © 2013 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

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