Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter to the Editor
  • Published:

Transcutaneous bilirubinometry during phototherapy

Journal of Perinatology volume 32, pages 734–735 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

We read with great interest the paper of Fonseca et al.1 published on your journal and would like to make some considerations about this study.

The authors studied a small sample of predominantly Hispanic neonates, and although the high risk of hyperbilirubinemia in this population, they started phototherapy at very low total serum bilirubin (TSB) levels for term infants. The authors state that phototherapy was started according to the American Academy of Paediatrics guidelines. However, the reported TSB levels before phototherapy are very low to justify the treatment in the absence of hemolysis. Did the authors use prophylactic phototherapy? Tan and Dong2 started phototherapy at really higher levels than those reported by Fonseca et al.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

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. Tan KL, Dong F . Transcutaneous bilirubinometry during and after phototherapy. Acta Paediatrica 2003; 92: 327–331.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. 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 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Largo Agostino Gemelli 8, Rome, Italy

    C Romagnoli & E Zecca

Authors
  1. C Romagnoli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. E Zecca
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to C Romagnoli.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Romagnoli, C., Zecca, E. Transcutaneous bilirubinometry during phototherapy. J Perinatol 32, 734–735 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2012.85

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2012.85

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links