Newborn mass screening and selective screening using electrospray tandem mass spectrometry in Japan

Electrospray tandem mass spectrometry was applied to detect a series of inherited metabolic disorders during a newborn-screening pilot study and a selective screening in Japan. In our mass screening of 102 200 newborns, five patients with propionic acidemia, two with methylmalonic acidemia, two with medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency, three with citrullinemia type II, and one with phenylketonuria were identified. In a selective screening of 164 patients with symptoms mainly related to hypoglycemia and/or hyperammonemia, 12 with fatty acid oxidation disorders and six with other disorders were found. The results indicated the importance of newborn screening using this technology in Japan.