Bilirubin encephalopathy.
In babies of low birth weight dying in the first week of life, bilirubin encephalopathy involving the thalamus only or the thalamus and one or two other areas occurred in nineteen of 376 cases examined over a 10 year period. Although coexistent germinal layer haemorrhage was present in sixteen, this was not thought to be an aetiological factor. Bile stained hyaline membranes in nine of the nineteen were considered to indicate the possibility of protein-bound bilirubin traversing a vascular barrier in these cases. This pattern of predominant lateral thalamic involvement may indicate selective vulnerability of this area in this group. It contrasts sharply with the localization in classical kernicterus (three cases) and in a disparate group where yellow discolouration of future white matter areas was observed (thirteen cases).
D001663:Bilirubin / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007647:Kernicterus / Q000473:pathology; D010487:Periaqueductal Gray / Q000473:pathology; D013788:Thalamus / Q000473:pathology*
D001663:Bilirubin