Results: Six hundred neonates were enrolled in this study. The Pearson correlation test showed that there was a significant correlation between the two methods of the transcutaneous versus measurement of serum bilirubin, using spectrophotometry (r=0.63), (P>0.05). There was no significant difference between the mean of measured bilirubin, using each method in some demographic variables such as the different groups of gender (P=0.896), birth weight (P=0.419), and type of feeding in neonates (P=0.323), but it was significant in other demographic variables such as the different groups of gestational age and post-neonatal age (P<0.0001). Also, the results revealed that there was a significant correlation between two methods of the trans cutaneous versus measurement of serum bilirubin, using spectrophotometry based on demographic variables (P<0.0001).
Conclusion: In general, the bilirubin measurement using trans-cutaneous method may estimate bilirubin significantly less than the serum bilirubin measurement method, and this difference can be more obviously noticeable in infants with less gestational age and also less post-natal age.
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