Introduction: Neonatal jaundice occurs in approximately 60% of term newborns. Although risk factors for neonatal jaundice have been studied, all the suggested strategies are based on various newborn tests for bilirubin levels.
Aim Of Work: to evaluate Cord Bilirubin for the development of significant hyperbilirubinemia in high-risk term neonates.
Patients & Methods: This is a Case control study that was conducted at Al-Azhar university hospitals from May 2023 to Dec 2023, including 100 term neonates met the inclusion criteria, evaluated for cord bilirubin at birth, 70 of them have had high risk features for developing pathological jaundice like ABO & RH incompatibility (study group (group1)), while 30 patients didn't have risk factors (control group- (group 2)), all patients were subjected to ABO group, CBC, CRP, reticulocytes, Coombs test and Cord bilirubin at 24 hrs. then peripheral samples for 3 successive days for total, direct and indirect bilirubin.
Results: Of 70 high risk term neonates, 44 of them had maternal UTI, 16 had ABO incompatibility and 10 had RH incompatibility, 56 of them were females (80%), while 14 were males (20%). On the other hand, control group included 7 females (23.3%) and 23 males (76.7%). The mean gestational age ±38.3 weeks and range between 37 to 42 weeks with standard deviation (SD) ±1.350. The mean birth weight of babies enrolled in our study ±3.09 kg with a range from 1.5 kg to 4.2 kg with SD±0.557. Newborns delivered by caesarean section were 88.6% and rest by spontaneous vaginal or assisted vaginal delivery, mean cord bilirubin for group (1) and (2) were 5.4±0.5 , 1.1±0.14 mg/dl respectively , p=0.001, while peripheral total bilirubin in the 3rd day was 8.77±0.13, 1.13±0.16 mg/dl respectively, P=0.001.
Conclusion: Measuring cord bilirubin in high-risk term neonates is crucial, valid and highly sensitive method for the early detection of significant hyperbilirubinemia. More trials needed to be conducted to emphasize the importance of cord bilirubin measurement. More risk factors should be studied specially at the antenatal period to evaluate if there is correlation between this period and developing hyperbilirubinemia or not.