DETERMINATION OF CORRELATION BETWEEN CORD BLOOD AND VENOUS BLOOD BILIRUBIN PREDICTS NICU STAY OF NEWBORNS WITH JAUNDICE

Background: In neonates, discharged after delivery at earlier postnatal ages, are likely to get admitted in nursery secondary to neonatal jaundice. This readmission is definitely a major source of burden in nursery which can be dealt with proper evaluation before discharging the neonate.   

Objective: To determine the correlation between cord blood bilirubin and venous bilirubin on the 3^rd day of life.

Methods: Cross sectional descriptive study was carried out on 100 healthy term neonates. Immediately after delivery, blood was collected from cord of the newborn, delivered either vaginally or cesarean section for the total serum bilirubin unconjugated serum bilirubin levels and conjugated serum bilirubin levels. On 3^rd day (72 hours), second serum blood sample drawn from peripheral venous blood, measurements of total serum bilirubin, unconjugated serum bilirubin and conjugated serum bilirubin are repeated. The study conducted for 6 months from 1^st May 2016 to 31^th October 2016.

Results: Subjects were categorized into hyperbilirubinemic and non-hyperbilirubinemic newborns. The results obtained on the basis of collective and stratified samples show that there is significant correlation 0.541 and P-value 0.000 between serum cord blood bilirubin and peripheral venous sample of  blood bilirubin.

Conclusion: There is a correlation between serum Cord blood bilirubin level and increase bilirubin levels in healthy term neonates. The rise in serum cord blood bilirubin levels are directly in correlation with rise in peripheral venous blood bilirubin at 3^rd day of life.

Keywords: blood, newborn, bilirubin, hyperbilirubinemia, nursery, NICU