Bilirubinemia in asphyxiated term infants. A clinical observation.

Recent clinical observations suggested that serum bilirubin levels remain low following perinatal asphyxia. This study was performed to determine the peak serum bilirubin concentrations in asphyxiated term infants and to compare these levels with those in a group of non-asphyxiated term infants. The medical records of 28 asphyxiated (Apgar < 7 at 5 minutes) and 947 non-asphyxiated term infants born during the same period of time were reviewed to obtain data on peak serum bilirubin concentrations for statistical comparison. The statistical mean for the peak serum bilirubin concentrations in the 28 asphyxiated infants was 5.0 mg/dl (+3.1 SD) while that for the 947 non-asphyxiated infants was 8.9 mg/dl (+3.7, p < .001). The findings in this study indicate that low peak bilirubin levels should be expected in asphyxiated term infants and may be helpful as a biochemical marker before the mechanism of action is known.