Comparison of change pattern of serum and transcutaneous bilirubin in hyper bilirubinemic neonates

Background: Hyperbilirubinemia is one of common and important problems in neonatal period.
Spectrophotometry is the common method for evaluating serum bilirubin level. In this study
transcutaneous bilirubinometry which is a non invasive newer method and seems to be more proper
for diagnosis, screening and controlling of treatment process of hyperbilirubinemia were studied.
Methods and Materials: In a cross-sectional study, 162 newborns (101 term and 61 preterm
neonates) who were been admitted because of ichter in Ali-Asghar hospital of Zahedan, came into
this study. Bilirubininometry was been achieved by means of both bili test and spectrophotometry,
before and after phototherapy in all cases, and then these measures were been compared. For
statistical analysis X2, t-test, willcoxon sign rank, and mann-whiteny tests were used.
Results: The test showed that the average of transcutaneous bilirubin before of phototherapy is in
term newborns and preterm newborns consequently 20/0 ±4/6 and 17/2±6/56. Also, the average of
serum bilirubin before of phototherapy is in term newborns and preterm newborns consequently
16/8 ±4/5 and 14/6 ± 5/96. On the other hand, the average of transcutaneous bilirubin after of
phototherapy is in term newborns and preterm newborns consequently 13/3 ± 3/7 and 10/04 ± 2/45.
Also, the average of serum bilirubin after of phototherapy is in term newborns and preterm
newborns consequently 9/8 ±2/2 and 8/01±2/5.
So, there was not significant difference between bilirubin levels in before mentioned two
methods. There was a similar pattern of changes between serum and transcutaneous bilirubin
before and after of phototherapy and there isn’t significant difference between them.
Conclusions: Like some other studies, this study proposes bili test as a useful measure for
screening and controlling of treatment process and recommend it as a substitute for serum method
in Zahedan’ s new borns.