title: [Etiologies of non-hemolytic jaundice in infants: a retrospective analysis of 3113 cases].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the causes of non-hemolytic jaundice among infants in Chongqing, China from the period of 1982 to 2011 and to determine whether the etiologies have changed over the past 30 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  The medical records of 3 113 infants,aged 1 month to 1 year,admitted to our hospital with non-hemolytic jaundice were collected and stratified according to decade-long time periods: group A (1982-1991), n=537; group B (1992-2001), n=786; group C (2002-2011), n=1 790. Data on sex, age, etiology and bilirubin level were retrospectively assessed using the chi-square test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the three groups, boys consistently accounted for the majority of cases (group A:74.3%, group B:66.7%, group C:62.6%). In group A, 52% of the patients were 1-2 months of age; the peak age of patients in both group B and C was 2-3 months (group B:67.8%, group C:61.0%). Group A showed the highest level of patients with mildly elevated total bilirubin level (80.3%); however, moderately elevated total bilirubin level was most frequent in group B (53.4%) and group C (49.7%). The main etiologic diagnoses of the patients in group A were cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection (31.7%), sepsis (18.2%), hepatitis B virus (HBV) (1.3%), and biliary tract anomalies (1.3%); 46.6% of the cases had unclear cause. The main etiologic diagnoses of the cases in group B were CMV infection (36.0%), sepsis (21.5%), breast milk jaundice (2.0%), and HBV (1.9%); 37.9% of the cases had unclear cause. The main etiologic diagnoses of the cases in group C were CMV infection (42.6%), sepsis (7.5%), breast milk jaundice (17.7%), and biliary tract anomalies (2.46%); 29.1% of the cases had unclear cause.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In Chongqing, infective factors, especially CMV, remain the main cause of nonhemolytic jaundice in infants, but bacterial etiologies have declined over the past 30 years.Non-infective factors, such as biliary tract anomalies and inherited metabolic diseases, have trended upwards. Although there has been great progress in the clinical management of non-hemolytic jaundice in infants, etiological diagnosis remains a challenge and further study is needed to eliminate this condition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Disease, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing 400014, China.
authors.forename: Xiaorong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Hongmei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007565:Jaundice; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies