[Behavior of some liver enzyme activities in newborn infants with jaundice treated with phototherapy].

The recent hypothesis that phototherapy is capable of altering the liver cell, enough to allow passive diffusion of free bilirubin from the blood to the bile, and the discovery of substantial differences between the breakdown products of bilirubin obtained in vivo and in vitro, has prompted the AA. to investigate the enzymatic values in newborn infants with jaundice undergoing phototherapy. A study was made of the variations of cytolithic enzymes (GPT-GOT-GLDH-SDH) and secretions enzymes (FA-LAP-gammaGT-CHE) before and after phototherapy among different sized groups of infants with jaundice, between the 36th and 40th week of the gestational age, and with body weight varying from 1940 to 4150 g. No significant alteration of the cytolithic enzymes were recorded and among the secretion enzymes only the gammaGT was seen to increase. According to the AA., phototherapy does not alter the presence of a possible transitory cholestasis in newborn infants with physiological jaundice and causes no significant damage to the liver cells.