title: How accurate are neonatologists in identifying clinical jaundice in newborns?
abstract: This study reevaluates the clinical ability to accurately identifyjaundice in neonates. Three hundred seventy-one term infants were clinically asseseed forjaundice, before discharge home on day 2 to 3 of life. Bilirubin levels obtained at the same time were significantly higher in the newborns clinically diagnosed as beingjaundiced. Our neonatologists were able to diagnose jaundice at clinically low levels, and not to misdiagnose significant hyperbilirubinemia in the majority of the infants. The trained human eye can still discriminate between the jaundiced and nonjaundiced newborn, and clinical impression of jaundice remains a reliable primary screening tool for significant neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Bnai Zion Medical Center, The B. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Arieh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Riskin
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abend-Weinger
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bader
mesh_terms: D001663:Bilirubin / Q000097:blood; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006932:Hyperbilirubinemia / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007567:Jaundice, Neonatal / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D009359:Neonatology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D001663:Bilirubin