Keshishjan E.S., Antonov V.S., Davydov V.M., Prischepa M.I.
Transcutaneous bilirubinometry method at newborn jaundice diagnostics and control.
The Russian bulletin perinatology and pediatrics, V38, 5, 1993
RUSSIA

Ten-year experience of using of transcutaneous bilirubinometry in medical practice has shown, that the doctor, using this method, has no doubt about this effective and reliable means of screening diagnostics. It forced the appearance of the transcutaneous newborn hyperbilirubinemia analyzer of BILITEST from the firm of TECHNOMEDICA. To estimate the correlation degree between the BILITEST readings (TcBI) and serum bilirubin, 284 newborns were surveyed, mainly of gestation age from 30 till 40 weeks and weight from 1400 g up to 3500. For all babies TcBI was measured on the forehead (at the bridge of the nose and on temples), on top part of sternum and on internal shin surface. Simultaneously, the concentration of serum bilirubin was examined. The average reproducibility of TcBI was about 4 % at the same baby and was changing from 2 up to 5 %, occasionally reaching 7 %, thus the pure device reproducibility did not exceed 2 % on test measures. Also the significant correlation was found between transcutaneous bilirubinometer readings and serum bilirubin (r = 0.91 for the forehead, r = 0.83 for the sternum). However the comparisons of cutaneous photometry results with bilirubin concentration in blood whey showed, that the TcBI measurement during phototherapy does not give the possibility for evaluation of provisional level of bilirubin in blood, and is only usable to supervise bilirubin level changes in skin for estimation of the efficiency of the choosen kind of treatment. Thus, the main method applications are the newborns allocation to groups by risk of heavy hyperbilirubinemia progress, and jaundice monitorig during treatment.