Jaundice In Term Newborns Research Articles

Roles of Probiotics in Reduction of Neonatal Jaundice in Term Newborns.

the primary objective was to examine the effect of Bifidobacterium on decreasing the bilirubin level in term neonates delivered by Caesarean Section (CS). A total of 153 healthy term neonates delivered by CS were included in this study and were divided into the non-probiotic group (n=99) and probiotic group (n=54) based on the history of probiotics administration. There were no infants who underwent phototherapy. A total of 20 doses of probiotics were given orally from the first day of life. The transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) levels were measured every day for the first 5 days of life. Data of each infant and mother were gathered from medical records. The bilirubin level per day (day-1 to day-5) in the non-probiotic group was no different from the probiotic group. Differences in bilirubin level between day-5 and day-1, and also between day-5 and day-2 were not different between the two groups. There was a significant (p = 0.03) body weight gain in the probiotic groups with a mean of 36.09 ± 8.23 gram/day. No obvious adverse reactions were seen in both the non-probiotic group and probiotic group. Our findings suggest no significant effects of probiotics on lowering bilirubin levels in the first five days of life. Also, probiotics have a positive effect on body weight gain in healthy term infants, and it is safe to be given to newborns.

A Comparative Study of Cord Blood Bilirubin and Albumin as a Predictor for Neonatal Jaundice in Term Newborns

A Comparative Study of Cord Blood Bilirubin and Albumin as a Predictor for Neonatal Jaundice in Term Newborns

Effect of oral zinc sulfate in prevention of jaundice in healthy term newborns

Background: Jaundice is observed during the 1st week of life in approximately 60% of term infants. This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of oral zinc sulfate in prevention of jaundice in healthy term newborns. Methods: In this clinical trial study, 124 healthy term infants with postnatal age less than 24 hours, that were born in Imam Reza Hospital (AS) in Kermanshah, were enrolled and equally divided into two groups, experimental and control (n=62). The infants in the control group only received the routine neonatal care without any intervention. In the treatment group, the newborns received 5 mg zinc sulfate 1% in a single dose daily for 5 days. In both groups, transcutaneous bilirubin was daily measured by bilimeter. Data were analyzed by statistical methods. Results: The mean frequency of stools in the treatment and control groups were 2.02±1.20 and 1.08±0.946, respectively in the first day and 3.76±1.38 and 2.81± 0.674 in the fifth day, which indicated a significant difference between the two groups (P<0.001). Transcutaneous bilirubin level in the first and second day after birth revealed no significant difference between the two groups, but it decreased in the treatment group from the third to fifth day indicating a statistically significant difference compared to control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Preventive oral administration of 5 mg of zinc sulfate per day to healthy term newborns could reduce the amount of transcutaneous bilirubin.

Direct Bilirubin Measurements in Jaundiced Term Newborns

To investigate the usefulness of measuring direct bilirubin in jaundiced term newborns, we reviewed the outcome of 5255 such measurements on 2877 term (37 weeks' gestation) newborns in two hospitals. Direct bilirubin tests were ordered 15 times as often per infant at the University of California, San Francisco, as at Stanford (Calif) University, and the reported results were more than twice as high. In most of the 149 infants with high (greater than 95th percentile) direct bilirubin levels, the high levels remained unexplained (52% of cases) or were due to apparent laboratory errors (21% of cases). Forty infants (27%) had conditions sometimes associated with high direct bilirubin levels. Elevation of direct bilirubin levels contributed to the diagnosis in only four of these infants. All had minor laboratory abnormalities that resolved spontaneously. Because of their low yield and poor specificity, direct bilirubin tests are seldom helpful in evaluating jaundice in term newborns.