All issues > Volume 23(2); 1980

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1980;23(2):111-117. Published online February 15, 1980.

Total Serum bilirubin concentration of Physiologic Jaundice of Healthy, full-term Infants.

Eung Sang Choi, Chang Hyo Lee, Chong Ku Yun

¹Department of Pediatries, college of Medicine, Seoul National University, Korea.

Abstract

The bilirubin formed in utero by the fetus can cross the placena and be excreted by the maternal liver. After birth, however, the infant must excrete its own bilirubin and hepatic clearance is not sufficient to prevent its accumulation during first week of life This transition has been physiologic jaundice and defined as an elevation of serum bilirubin that does not exceed 12mg% that occurs in first week of life in the absence of hemolytic disease. It is becoming increasingly apparent that several factors act in concert and that no single mechanism is soly responsible for producing physiologic jaundice in the new born. A simple micromethod technique for the analysis of small samples has made it possible to record the changes in the level of bilirubin in the serum by means of daily observation a large number of infants. So, serial observations for serum bilirubin concentrations on 40 healty fullterm infants from birth to 7 day. The study revealed that 14 infants(38%) exhibited the bilirubin levels of 12mg% or higher. The means of the peak bilirubin concentrations were obtained and revealed most higher on the forth dey. Positive correlations were found between the intensity and the duration of physiologic icterus, between the degree of hyperbilirubinemia and the age at which the process attains its maximum intensity and between the maximum height of the bilirubin level and the total duration of elevated levels of bilirubin in the serum. The mean total bilirubin level of the physiologic jaundice in the Korean new born infants was remarkably higher than those observed in the white iufants. So, the definition of physiologic jaundice by zeuzer is not of use in the Korean full term in fants.

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