For infants of mothers with blood group O, arterial umbilical cord bilirubin (aUCB) predicts development of neonatal jaundice due to haemolytic disease, according to a study published Sept. 20 in BMC Pediatrics. "Estimation of UCB at delivery is practicable, cheap and non-invasive," write the authors led by Kelsey D. J. Jones, from Imperial College in the United Kingdom. "It could be easily integrated with the current trend towards routine umbilical cord blood biochemical evaluation practiced in many centers." Hyperbilirubinaemia is among the most common causes of neonatal admission to hospital, but early identification of infants at highest risk enables targeted primary preventative therapy. The U.K.-based researchers retrospectively reviewed hospital biochemistry records to identify term deliveries with recorded aUCB (February to November 2010), as well as infant medical records to identify those who developed neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia requiring treatment. It was standard procedure at the hospital to perform umbilical cord gas analysis on all obstetric- led deliveries, and that the GEM4000 blood analyzer automatically provides total bilirubin estimation. Clinically significant jaundice developed in 2.7 percent of infants with recorded aUCB. Eight cases had a positive direct antiglobulin test (DAT), mostly due to ABO blood type incompatibility. aUCB strongly predicted the development of […]