Physician's Weekly
Highlights And Analysis Of Medical News
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Clinical Updates
June 22, 1998 Vol. XV, No. 24
BILIRUBIN
Light meter quantifies jaundice quickly
NEW ORLEANS-For newborn jaundice in an era of fast discharge, the eyes don't have it.
In a study of 615 Hispanic, 110 Caucasian, 103 Asian, and 72 African American infants, a team at Mount Sinai in New York found that a color-filtered light meter equals heelstick blood tests, with no lab delay.
Used at five body sites for up to 10 seconds every six to eight hours until discharge, the handheld BiliTest (Chromatics Color Sciences International) scored within 2 mg/dL of 95% of the bilirubin lab values for premies and full-term infants weighing two to 10 pounds, Dr. Ian Holzman told the Society for Pediatric Research meeting here.
There was no effect of race, complexion, gestational age, or phototherapy-which 61 of the newborns received-on the device's ability to correlate with bilirubin. Only five of 900 tests, he says, read 11 mg/dL or lower when bilirubin showed 12 mg/dL or higher. -Elsie Rosner |
