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  • Letter to the Editor
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Response to Zecca and Romagnoli

Journal of Perinatology volume 32, page 735 (2012)Cite this article

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I thank you for your comments regarding our paper.1 I would like to explain some of the concerns that were addressed in the letter:

  1. 1)

    We mentioned that our study population consisted of 85% Hispanics; we cannot alter our patient population. We were aiming to have about 50 patients total, but only 39 patients completed the study (some patients had serum bilirubin but missed transcutaneous bilirubin levels or vice versa, some patients were excluded for not having a rebound transcutaneous bilirubin after stopping phototherapy).

  2. 2)

    In our protocol, we intended that infants requiring phototherapy were treated based on the American Academy of Pediatrics Guidelines, although it is true that some of our infants were started at low levels compared with the AAP Guidelines, our study was not to evaluate the starting bilirubin level at onset of phototherapy, rather we were comparing the transcutaneous bilirubin measurements between exposed and unexposed skin with the serum bilirubin levels.

  3. 3)

    Our study group did not influence the attending physician decision to start phototherapy. Prophylactic phototherapy was not a standard practice for the management of hyperbilirubinemia.

  4. 4)

    We apologize for our failure to cite the fine paper by Zecca et al.,2 of which we were unaware.

  5. 5)

    Despite these concerns, we believe that the main point of our study, which exposed skin receiving phototherapy has lower transcutaneous bilirubin levels than serum bilirubin, is correct. Further, our results showed that covered skin transcutaneous bilirubin levels were similar to serum levels.

We mentioned that our study population consisted of 85% Hispanics; we cannot alter our patient population. We were aiming to have about 50 patients total, but only 39 patients completed the study (some patients had serum bilirubin but missed transcutaneous bilirubin levels or vice versa, some patients were excluded for not having a rebound transcutaneous bilirubin after stopping phototherapy).

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References

  1. Fonseca R, Kyralessa R, Malloy M, Richardson J, Jain SK . Covered skin transcutaneous bilirubin estimation is comparable with serum bilirubin during and after phototherapy. J Perinatol 2012; 32: 129–131.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Zecca E, Barone G, De Luca D, Marra R, Tiberi E, Romagnoli C . Skin bilirubin measurement during phototherapy in preterm and term newborn infants. Early Hum Dev 2009; 85: 537–540.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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  1. University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA

    R A Fonseca

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  1. R A Fonseca
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Correspondence to R A Fonseca.

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Fonseca, R. Response to Zecca and Romagnoli. J Perinatol 32, 735 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2012.89

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