Reliability of Bilirubin Determinations in Icterus of the Newborn Infant

In view of the increasing necessity for close collaboration between the clinical laboratory and the pediatrician who is faced with multiplying problems in management of diseases of the newborn, it may not be amiss for a clinical chemist to point out some of the limitations to the assistance he is called upon to render in chemical evaluation of jaundice. Granting that symptomatic battles against increasing levels of bilirubin in the serum constitute the clinical objective in these cases, there appears to be a growing sensitivity of the pediatrician in his reaction to smaller and smaller changes between consecutive bilirubin assays.