TEXAS \u2014 Babies born in the Lone Star State as of June will now be tested for additional rare genetic disorders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea of the newborn screening is that we find them before those complications arise, and then you can improve them,\u201d says Dr. Luis Umana, a genetic and metabolism specialist at Children\u2019s Health in Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Texas Department of State Health Services has added the rare genetic disorder guanidinoacetate methyltransferase (GAMT) deficiency to the newborn screening test.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a condition in which the body cannot create chemical compound that we call creatine,\u201d explained Umana.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The specialist says the disorder is rare, but if not treated, it can be life-threatening.<\/p>\n
\u201cBabies who don\u2019t have this ability to form creatine, they can grow with problems of…muscle weakness. And more serious is intellectual disability and seizures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In June, Texas became the 20th state to screen for the rare genetic disorder by having newborns pricked on the heel.<\/p>\n
The test is for one of 60 rare disorders that the state requires newborns to be tested for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take two samples, one on the first 48 hours of life and the second one between the first two weeks of life,\u201d said Umana.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Samples are processed at state labs in Austin. Then, if something is found, treatment is available.<\/p>\n
According to Texas health officials, across the state about 1,000 newborns are diagnosed with life-threatening disorders each year through the GAMT screening.<\/p>\n
In North Texas, Umana said that Children\u2019s Health is the only hospital capable of treating children with rare genetic disorders.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re one of the few centers in the state that has the complete expertise to treat all of these rare conditions and metabolic disorders,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thanks to the early testing now underway, Umana and other experts are hoping to resolve dozens of cases annually.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd baby might go on to have close to normal development, normal lifespans. That\u2019s why the newborn screening is considered to be one of the great successes of public health policy,\u201d said Umana.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014 Babies born in the Lone Star State as of June will now be tested for additional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2271,132,1570,102,138,584,25523,9979,223,82,27,29,28,1569,835],"class_list":["post-366963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-app-health","tag-austin","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-health","tag-health-and-medicine","tag-marcine-graham","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}