Transcutaneous bilirubin levels in extremely preterm infants less than 30 weeks gestation

Meera N Sankar; Rangasamy Ramanathan; Priscilla Joe; Anup C Katheria; Maria Fe B Villosis; Maria Cortes; Dilip R Bhatt; Huy Truong; Virna Paje; Rosemarie C Tan; Vasudha Arora; Marielle Nguyen; Manoj Biniwale

doi:10.1038/s41372-022-01477-4

Transcutaneous bilirubin levels in extremely preterm infants less than 30 weeks gestation

J Perinatol. 2023 Feb;43(2):220-225. doi: 10.1038/s41372-022-01477-4. Epub 2022 Aug 5.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. mnsankar@stanford.edu.
² Division of Neonatology, LAC + USC Medical Center, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³ Neonatology, UCSF Benioff Children's Oakland, Oakland, CA, USA.
⁴ Neonatal Research Institute, Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women and Newborns, San Diego, CA, USA.
⁵ Neonatology, Kaiser Foundation Hospital, Panorama City, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics/Neonatology, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose, CA, USA.
⁷ Neonatology, Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center, Fontana, CA, USA.
⁸ Neonatology, Miller Children's Hospital, Long Beach, CA, USA.
⁹ Neonatology, Kaiser Foundation Hospital, Downey, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Neonatology, Kaiser Permanente Southern California Orange County, Anaheim, CA, USA.

PMID: 35931798
DOI: 10.1038/s41372-022-01477-4

Abstract

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to determine the relationship between transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) levels and total serum bilirubin (TSB) levels in extremely preterm infants.

Study design: We conducted a prospective multicenter study of extremely preterm infants less than 30 weeks gestation in California. Difference between paired TcB and TSB values were compared based on gestational age, birth weight, maternal race/ethnicity, chronological age as well as during and after phototherapy.

Results: TSB values ranged from 0 to 12.6 mg/dl and the TcB values ranged from 0 to 14.2 mg/dl. TSB was predicted with a high degree of accuracy at TSB = 2.37 + 0.54 (TcB) with r = 0.786. There was good correlation across gestational age, birth weight, race/ethnic, chronological age subgroups as well as during and after phototherapy.

Conclusion: Our study supports the use of TcB as a screening tool for monitoring jaundice in extremely preterm infants.

Publication types

Multicenter Study

MeSH terms

Bilirubin
Birth Weight
Female
Gestational Age
Humans
Infant, Extremely Premature*
Infant, Newborn
Jaundice, Neonatal* / diagnosis
Jaundice, Neonatal* / therapy
Neonatal Screening
Pregnancy
Prospective Studies
Skin

Substances

Bilirubin