Impact of a transcutaneous bilirubinometry program on resource utilization and severe hyperbilirubinemia.

Objectives: Our goal was to assess the impact of programmatic and coordinated use of transcutaneous bilirubinometry (TcB) on the incidence of severe neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and measures of laboratory, hospital, and nursing resource utilization.

Methods: We compared the neonatal hyperbilirubinemia-related outcomes of 14 796 prospectively enrolled healthy infants ≥35 weeks gestation offered routine TcB measurements in both hospital and community settings by using locally validated nomograms relative to a historical cohort of 14 112 infants assessed by visual inspection alone.

Results: There was a 54.

Impact of skin tone on the performance of a transcutaneous jaundice meter.

Aim: To evaluate the performance of the Konica Minolta/Air-Shields JM-103 jaundice meter on the basis of infant skin tone during the early neonatal period.

Methods: Infants were prospectively categorized into light, medium and dark skin tone groups relative to two reference colours. Transcutaneous bilirubin readings were taken at predetermined intervals through the early neonatal period on a convenience sample of 938 healthy infants > or =37 weeks gestation.