What Are The Uses Of A Bilirubinometer Instrument
A bilirubinometer is an instrument which uses spectrophotometry to determine the levels of bilirubin present in the blood
. This level is expressed as a measurement called TSB or total serum bilirubin. There are different types of instruments which measure serum bilirubin levels, with the traditional method being taking a small blood sample in a capillary tube. Some of these instruments are able to measure the bilirubin level of the sample without opening the tube, but others require that the tube be broken after being spun down at the point where red cells and serum meet, with the serum alone being poured into a chamber for measurement.
Because of the obvious health hazard posed to personnel with this method, glass capillary tubes have largely fallen out of favor as have bilirubinometer instruments which require that the tubes be broken. Instead, instruments which can measure total serum bilirubin levels in samples inside of intact plastic capillary tubes.
The primary application for bilirubinometers is in neonatal and pediatric medicine, where they are used to diagnose or assess the risk of conditions including bilirubin encephalopathy. Testing for jaundice, however is the most common use for these instruments.
While jaundice is often possible to diagnose on the basis of a visual inspection alone, since the signs include a yellowish cast being taken on by the skin and the whites of the eyes, a coloration which is caused by elevated bilirubin levels in the blood. Especially high bilirubin levels can cause this coloration to darken to brown, but a bilirubinometer is generally still used to confirm this diagnosis.
Since jaundice can be a symptom of serious diseases yet is also a common occurrence in healthy infants in their first two weeks of life, measuring bilirubin levels is an important part of the diagnostic process. Elevated bilirubin levels (also known as hyperbilirubinemia) can cause toxicity if the concentration in the blood is high enough, leading to bilirubin encephalopathy and kernicterus, a very serious neurological disorder in infants who display signs of severe jaundice.
With the incidence of kernicterus on the rise, the diagnosis and treatment of hyperbilirubinemia has become an increasingly important part of neonatal care, especially since levels of bilirubin often peak after infants are discharged from hospitals.
Newer and less invasive transcutaneous bilirubinometer instruments are also available, providing an alternative method of measuring total serum bilirubin which is as accurate as the conventional method of measuring a blood sample for bilirubin levels. These instruments use a strobe light generated by a xenon tube - the light is capable of passing through the skin into subcutaneous tissues and is reflected back to an integrated spectrophotometric unit.
The instrument then corrects for the effects of hemoglobin and measures the intensity of yellow light, providing a display of the results within seconds. These bilirubin measurement instruments are rapidly being adopted in place of older systems due to the far greater speed at which they provide TSB measurements and their safety, there is virtually no risk of infection being spread to the infant or the operator of the bilirubinometer.
by: Andrew Long
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