Study of correlation and agreement between transcutaneous bilirubinometry and serum bilirubin measurements in late preterm and term neonates with clinical jaundice admitted in NICU

Bansal Y, Palsania S, Khan N, Meena C

Pdf Page Numbers :- 32-38

Yogesh Bansal¹, Subhash Palsania¹ , Nikhat Khan² and Chandrapraksah Meena^2,*

¹Department of Pediatrics, Kota Medical College, Kota, Rajasthan – 302021, India

²Department of Pediatrics, Jhalawar Medical College, Kota Road, Jhalawar, Rajasthan 326001, India

*Corresponding author: Dr. Chandrapraksah Meena, Department of Pediatrics, Jhalawar Medical College, Kota Road, Jhalawar, Rajasthan 326001, India. Email: subhash.pals005@outlook.com

Received 7 October 2024; Revised 29 November 2024; Accepted 9 December 2024; Published 19 December 2024

Citation: Bansal Y, Palsania S, Khan N, Meena C. Study of correlation and agreement between transcutaneous bilirubinometry and serum bilirubin measurements in late preterm and term neonates with clinical jaundice admitted in NICU. J Med Sci Res. 2025; 13(1):32-38. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17727/JMSR.2024/13-6

Copyright: © 2025 Bansal Y et al. Published by KIMS Foundation and Research Center. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Abstract

Background: Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is a common condition in the first week of life, affecting 8-11% of neonates, with 60-80% experiencing idiopathic jaundice. The study aimed to estimate serum bilirubin in babies using the non-invasive device AMIGO MBJ20 and to examine the correlation between total serum bilirubin (TSB) and transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) measured on the forehead.

Materials and methods: This 1-year prospective, hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the NICU. The sample size was calculated as 171 neonates. Inclusion criteria focused on neonates >35 weeks’ gestation and >2 kg receiving phototherapy for hyperbilirubinemia without comorbidities. Exclusions included previous phototherapy, congenital malformations, conjugated hyperbilirubinemia, or other illnesses. Data collection involved venous blood sampling for total and direct bilirubin (Diazo method) and transcutaneous bilirubin using a handheld bilirubinometer.

Results: This study analyzed 171 neonates (57.9% males, 42.1% females; mean age 3.53±1.28 days). Preterm births were 15.2%. Breastfeeding initiation occurred in 85.4%, and 21.6% experienced >5% weight loss. Total serum bilirubin (TSB) strongly correlated with transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) (p<0.001).

Conclusion: The study confirms a strong agreement between TSB and TcB with a significant positive linear correlation (p<0.001). The regression equation, TSB = 0.9987×TcB - 1.6258, accurately predicts TSB. Bland-Altman analysis showed a bias of 1.645 with moderate agreement (Kendall's W = 0.595).

Keywords: neonatal; hyperbilirubinemia; bilirubinometry; bilirubin; jaundice; neurotoxicity