INTRODUCTION Jaundice is the yellowish pigmentation of the skin, sclera, and mucous membranes resulting from bilirubin deposition. Children born to mothers with HIV are more likely to be born premature, with low birth weight, and to become septic-all risk factors for neonatal jaundice. Further, there has been a change in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV guidelines f...

BACKGROUND Incidence of jaundice is high in newborn infants. Since well appearing newborns are rapidly and routinely discharged from hospital, performing an inexpensive noninvasive pre-discharge screening test for evaluation of jaundice seems to be necessary. OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to compare the accuracy of cutaneous v/s serum bilirubin measurements in this regard. PATIENTS AN...

By far the most common clinical problem addressed by family practitioners and pediatricians in the first weeks of an infant’s life is hyperbilirubinemia. With the exception of the standard metabolic screen, the measurement of a total serum bilirubin (TSB) concentration is the most common laboratory test ordered for a newborn infant. That is not surprising because the clinical sign, jaundice, is...

The accuracy of transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) measurements obtained with a Bilicheck device in 70 preterm neonates before phototherapy and during phototherapy from the exposed and unexposed skin of the forehead (under the eye patch) was evaluated by comparing the TcB with the total serum bilirubin (TSB) that was performed within +/- 30 minutes of the TcB measurements. The correlation and propo...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) devices are widely used for the estimation of serum bilirubin levels in term and near-term infants. Our objective was to review the diagnostic accuracy of TcB devices in preterm infants. METHODS Medline, Embase, Cochrane library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Scopus were searched (from database inception d...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Breastfed newborns are more likely to develop prolonged hyperbilirubinemia than those fed formula, but the prevalence of prolonged hyperbilirubinemia in a largely white, North American breastfed population is unknown. In this population, we documented the natural history of jaundice and the prevalence of prolonged hyperbilirubinemia, and we evaluated the utility of ass...

In this report, we review a number of procedures and devices that are used to diagnose and quantify the severity levels of two ubiquitous medical conditions, anemia and bilirubinemia (jaundice). Both conditions are associated with changes in the contents of specific chromophores present in the blood, more specifically hemoglobin present in the red blood cells (RBCs) and biliribin found in the p...

BACKGROUND Neonatal jaundice or hyperbilirubinemia is a common occurrence in newborns. Although most cases of neonatal jaundice have a benign course, severe hyperbilirubinemia can lead to kernicterus, which is preventable if the hyperbilirubinemia is identified early and treated appropriately. CONTENT This review discusses neonatal jaundice and the use of transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) measur...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) devices are widely used for the estimation of serum bilirubin levels in term and near-term infants. Our objective was to review the diagnostic accuracy of TcB devices in preterm infants. METHODS: Medline, Embase, Cochrane library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Scopus were searched (from database inception d...