Investigation of gender and prandial state as factors affecting skin bilirubin level

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the use of the developed non-invasive optical system to measure differences in the mean concentration of skin bilirubin Cbil(m) among individuals of different gender and at different prandial state. This system employed the use of color filters to allow an illumination of the selected skin site using light beams of centre wavelength 420 nm, 440 nm and 460 nm. The prediction of the required skin bilirubin concentration value is via Modified Lambert Beer law. This study conducted experiments on the back of the hand of twelve recruits. The results revealed a higher mean Cbil(m) value of 0.25 ± 0.007 µmol/L for males as compared to 0.14 ± 0.0086 µmol/L measured for females. In addition, this work observed a decrease in the mean Cbil(m) value for the ten recruits of mixed gender from 0.23 ± 0.06 µmol/L at preprandial phase to 0.18 ± 0.04 µmol/L during the postprandial period. This study concluded that the developed system is able to detect changes in the skin bilirubin concentration level with one’s gender and prandial state as reported in literature. However, this system may be further improved for future clinical application on jaundiced patients.