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Abstract

Introduction: Neonatal jaundice is a common phenomenon. The gold standard for determining bilirubin levels is total serum bilirubin using a blood sample in a laboratory setting. Unfortunately this is an invasive and painful method which compared to portable bilirubinometer devices is associated with some delays in revealing data. Therefore a convenient and non-invasive method could be substituted. Materials and methods:This is a cross-sectional analytic study conducted on 52 term infants with jaundice in Shahid Sadooghi hospital during summer to winter 2015 in Yazd, Iran. At the first, the bilirubin level was estimated through clinical assessment by a nurse. Then bilirubin level in newborns was measured with Jaundice meter GM103 in the area between the eyebrows. Finally, blood samples from neonates were taken and sent to the lab. All demographic data and measured bilirubin amounts were analyzed by software SPSS v.17. Results:The mean serum bilirubin level in newborns reported by the laboratory was 14.39±5.13 however the mean for bilirubin level in newborns measured by the portable device and assessed by the nurse were 12.84±3.7 and 13.5±3.5 respectively. The comparison tests including Chi-square and Student T test showed a statistically significant difference between all these methods (P <0.05). Conclusion:The data showed that regarding to a statistically significant difference between bilirubin measurement methods (P <0.05), these methods cannot be used as alternatives to each other and determining of serum bilirubin as the preferred method should always takes priority.