Comparison of invasive measurement and two noninvasive measurement in the diagnosis of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia

INTRODUCTION: Reliable noninvasive methods are required for the diagnosis of indirect hyperbilirubinemia in infants. We compared the total serum bilirubin level with transcutaneous and bilicam methods.
METHODS: This analytical study was performed in a neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital in Turkey. We included 70 infants whose families gave voluntary and written consent, including infants with a low, medium, and high risk of hyperbilirubinemia, birth weight >1500 g, and late preterm infants. We measured the total serum bilirubin and compared it with bilirubin levels obtained via transcutaneous and bilicam measurement methods. The relationship between data were determined using descriptive statistical methods; continuous data showing normal distribution were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient; and data that were not normally distributed were analyzed using Spearman correlation analysis.
RESULTS: A statistically significant and positive correlation was observed between the levels of total serum bilirubin and transcutaneous bilirubin before phototherapy, whereas a moderate relationship was observed in these values after phototherapy (p < 0.01). A significant positive and moderate relationship was observed between the total serum bilirubin levels and bilirubin levels measured using bilicam before phototherapy (p < 0.01), and a weak relationship was observed between these values after phototherapy (p < 0.05).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our results show that considering measurement of total serum bilirubin as a reference method, transcutaneous and bilicam methods can be used as screening methods to detect indirect hyperbilirubinemia.