Jaundice of megaloblastic anemia

Abstract

Objective To analyze the changes of serum bilirubin concentration in megaloblastic anemia(MA) patients. Methods Forty-seven MA patients were newly diagnosed by bone marrow examination and 41 healthy people without anemia were as controls. Results The mean of serum direct bilirubin concentration (DBil) of MA patients and controls was (9.07±4.43)μmol/L, (3.61±1.29)μmol/L, respectively (P＜0.0001). The two groups median of serum indirect bilirubin concentration (IBil) was 18.950 μmol/L, 7.340 μmol/L, respectively (P=0.0000). Serum total bilirubin concentration (TBil) of 37 MA patients(78.72%) were＞17.1 μmol/L. TBil of 13 MA patients(27.66%) were＞34.2 μmol/L. DBil of 30 MA patients(63.83%) were ＞6.8 μmol/L, the maximum was 19.42 μmol/L. IBil of 36 MA patients (76.60%) were ＞14.0 μmol/L, the maximum was 98.07 μmol/L. In 37 MA patients with jaundice, the ratio of DBil to TBil in 4 cases(10.81%) were less than 0.20, whereas the ratio of 33 cases(89.19%) were between 0.20 and 0.50. Conclusions TBil of about three fourths MA patients increases. Clinical jaundice appears in about three tenths of MA patients. Jaundice of about nine tenths of MA patients is similar to hepatocellular jaundice,which should be differentiated from liver diseases. Key words: Megaloblastic anemia; Total bilirubin; Direct bilirubin; Indirect bilirubin; Jaundice