ABSTRACT
Objective To compare the correlation between transcutaneous bilirubin(TcB) measurement and serum bilirubin (TSB) measurement at covered and exposed skin sites during phototherapy in neonates.Methods Two sites of exposed skin and two sites of covered skin were chosen to measure the transcutaneous bilirubin.The serum bilirubin was monitored at admission and during phototherapy,while the transcutaneous bilirubin was tested and recorded at the same time of monitoring the serum bilirubin.Results A total of 112 cases were included from January 29th to April 15th in 2016.At the four monitoring points during phototherapy,the differences between the transcutaneous bilirubin of the two exposed sites and the serum bilirubin were statistically significant (P＜0.01).For the covered site 4,there were no significant differences between transcutaneous bilirubin and serum bilirubin at every test point (P＞0.05).When the serum bilirubin was higher than 307.8 μmol/L (18mg/dl),the serum bilirubin measurement was larger than the transcutaneous bilirubin measurement.Conclusion The transcutaneous bilirubin level of covered skin was more close to serum bilirubin,especially when the covered median skin of the second rib was chosen to monitor the transcutaneous bilirubin.When the serum bilirubin was greater than 307.8 μmol/L(18mg/dl),the transcutaneous bilirubin couldn't represent serum bilirubin quite well.