Advances in perinatal monitoring and early treatment for hyperbilirubinemia in high-risk patients have greatly reduced the incidence of kernicterus. Findings on MRI in patients with kernicterus are characteristic. The most characteristic pattern of neuropathological lesions in kernicterus is symmetric and highly selective involvement of the basal ganglia. In this study, we report the MRI findin...

BACKGROUND The term kernicterus, or bilirubin encephalopathy, is used to describe pathological bilirubin staining of the basal ganglia, brain stem, and cerebellum, and is associated with hyperbilirubinemia. Kernicterus generally occurs in untreated hyperbilirubinemia or cases where treatment is delayed. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based studies have shown characteristic findings in kernict...

The yellow staining of basal ganglia (kernicterus) in some jaundiced newborn infants has been recognized for many years (1). The association between serum bilirubin concentration and kernicterus (2, 3), the isolation of bilirubin from kernicteric brains (4, 5), and the toxic effect of bilirubin in vitro upon oxygen uptake (6) and oxidative phosphorylation (7) are further evidence of a relations...

Despite efforts to eliminate permanent and irreversible brain damage due to bilirubin encephalopathy and kernicterus, these conditions continue to accompany us into the third millennium. This phenomenon occurs not only in developing countries with emerging medical systems, but in Westernized countries as well. Comprehensive guidelines to detect newborns with jaundice and treat those in whom hyp...

Despite efforts to eliminate permanent and irreversible brain damage due to bilirubin encephalopathy and kernicterus, these conditions continue to accompany us into the third millennium. This phenomenon occurs not only in developing countries with emerging medical systems, but in Westernized countries as well. Comprehensive guidelines to detect newborns with jaundice and treat those in whom hyp...

A lthough neonatal jaundice is usually a self limited condition, in exceptional circumstances, extreme hyperbilirubinaemia, with its devastating potential of irreversible brain damage due to bilirubin encephalopathy or kernicterus, may occur. For the most part, kernicterus should nowadays be a preventable condition; however, cases continue to occur. The reasons for the persistence of kernicteru...