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False positive results in a neuroblastoma screening programme

1994; Alan R. Liss, Inc.; Volume: 22; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/mpo.2950220306

1096-911X

Susan Bell, Louise Parker, Alan Craft, Gordon Dale, Andrew C. McGill, John Seviour, Michael Cole, Julian Smith,

Neonatal Respiratory Health Research

Abstract Twenty thousand, eight hundred and twenty‐nine babies were screened for neuroblastoma at 6 months of age by measuring homovanillic (HVA) and vanillylmandelic (VMA) acid in urine and ratioing these to creatinine. Using a „cut off”︁ of the mean + 3 SD, 10 were found to be positive. Two were found on evaluation to have neuroblastoma and in the remaining 8 the raised levels of HVA and/or VMA returned to normal. Only one of the 8 false positive babies was absolutely normal, most having a chronic disorder or illness. Utilising new centiles which relate HVA and VMA to creatinine, only 3 of the 8 would have remained positive, a false positive rate of 0.01%. The false negative rate would have remained unchanged.