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Relationship of Transcutaneous Billirubin with Serum Billirubin in Neonates with Jaundice

Background: Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is a common problem in neonates with an incidence of about 60% in term babies and 80% in preterm babies. It is the commonest cause of admission to the hospitals in the newborn period. Studies comparing the correlation between total serum bilirubin (SBR) and transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) have yielded different results. So, we planned this study to find out relationship between TcB and SBR values . Methods:  A hospital based prospective study was done during March 2016 to September 2016, in which a total of 120 newborns including term and preterm who were admitted with neonatal jaundice in NICU, Maharana Bhupal Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan were assessed in terms of age, sex and weight and investigated for both TcB and SBR. The sample size was calculated at a confidence interval of 90% and allowable error of 15%. Results: Out of total 120 study subjects, 59 (49%) were males and 61 (51%) were females, out of which 53 (44%) were preterm and 67 (56%) were term neonates. Mean TcB and SBR values at the time of admission has a mean difference of 2.52 mg/dl with a p-value 0.001, which is non-significant. TcB and SBR at 48 and 72 hr of admission also has a mean difference which is also non- significant (p >0.001) . Conclusions:  From present study, we conclude that there is no significant difference between TcB and SBR values at 24, 48 and 72 hrs after starting phototherapy. The values of TcB are equally reliable as SBR values.