Determining the Correlation and Accuracy of Three Methods of Measuring Neonatal Bilirubin Concentration

Objective: there are different methods for measuring bilirubin concentration; however, it is quite important for practitioners to know which method should be used in certain clinical situations. the present prospective study aimed to compare three different methods for measuring neonatal bilirubin concentrations. methods: all full term neonates who were either brought into emergency departments or admitted to the neonatal wards in kerman city in 2011 were recruited (n=428). the correlation coefficients were estimated for the routine ways of bilirubin concentrations including capillary, cutaneous and laboratory methods. findings: of 428 recruited neonates, 178 were female. mean age ±sd was 178±71 hours. the correlation coefficient for david icterometer vs jm103 was 0.91, while the corresponding coefficient for david icterometer vs capillary was 0.96. it was also equivalent to 0.85 for correlation between jm103 and capillary methods. the david icterometer measured an average of 2.36 mg/dl levels of bilirubin concentration compared to the jm103 method. the capillary method showed a lower bilirubin level than the venous concentration (0.91 mg/dl on average). compared with the capillary, the jm103 measured a slightly higher level of bilirubin with an average 0.57 mg/dl. conclusion: due to low difference (less than 1 mg/dl) between jm103 and the capillary methods for measurement of neonatal bilirubin concentration, these two methods could alternatively be used instead of usual laboratory method.