Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The neonatal heel prick is a common procedure for taking a blood sample from the heel of newborn infants. The blood samples can be used for a variety of tests, including: Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) to detect hypothyroidism and hence prevent cretinism. Trypsin to detect cystic fibrosis. Detection of phenylketonuria, an enzyme deficiency that can impair brain development). Other potential tests include: A test for galactosemia With genetic tests becoming more common, a wide variety of tests may use the blood drawn by this method. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.