Dr. Lal Path Labs Pvt. Ltd. (LPL), one of India’s largest pathology labs chain, has introduced Neonatal Screening Test, which does a mass screening of diseases in newborns. The test is meant to diagnose various disorders / diseases at the very beginning of it so that they can be treated well in time and child could lead a normal healthy life.

The test will be available at LPL’s Gamdevi lab in Mumbai and through all their 200 collection centers and 7 labs across the country. The test is done on the babies in the age group of 0-28 days. The sample is taken by taking few drops of blood by pricking the heel of neonate. The blood drop is taken on a special blotting paper. This sample is then tested for various diseases.

Speaking on the launch, Dr. Arvind Lal, Managing Director, Dr. Lal PathLabs Pvt. Ltd. said, “We have experienced that few newborns who appear normal at the time of birth sometimes grow up with physical/ mental disorders. Neonatal Screening Test is aimed at reducing these disorders, which if found, may cripple the baby for life.”

Some of these disorders are poor physical or mental growth, mental retardation and other mental / physical problems. In most of the cases, these disorders come without any apparent symptoms. These disorders might have been prevented. However it has always been a medical challenge to predict such kind of diseases in advance.