Correlation between cord blood bilirubin level and incidence of hyperbilirubinemia in term newborns

Background Discharging healthy term newborns from the hospital after delivery at increasingly earlier postnatal ages has recently become a common practice due to medical, social, and economic reasons, however it contributes to readmission because of jaundice. Objective To investigate the correlation between level of cord blood bilirubin and development of hyperbilirubinemia among healthy term newborns. Methods Prospective observational study was performed on 88 healthy term newborns. Cord blood was collected for the total bilirubin, conjugated bilirubin, unconjugated bilirubin level measurement and blood group test. Measurements of total bilirubin, conjugated bilirubin, and unconjugated bilirubin were repeated on the 5th day with serum sampling, or as soon as the newborn appeared to be jaundice. Results Subjects were categorized into hyperbilirubinemia and non-hyperbilirubinemia newborns. There was a correlation between cord blood and the 5th day bilirubin level. By ROC analysis, cord blood bilirubin level of 2:2.54 md/dL was determined to have high sensitivity (90.5%), specificity of 85%, and accuracy of 86.4%. Conclusions There is a correlation between cord blood bilirubin level and hyperbilirubinemia in healthy term newborns. Cord blood bilirubin level at or greater than 2.54 mg/dL can predict the development of hyperbilirubinemia