Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Knudsen.
Retroperitoneal fibrosis in a 12-year-old boy is reported. This was associated with a fibrotic mass in the neck which resolved spontaneously. Right-sided ureteric obstruction responded to treatment with steroids.
The relationship between cephalocaudal progression of jaundice and bilirubin concentration, reserve albumin concentration and plasma pH was studied in 47 newborn infants. Furthermore, the cephalocaudal progression of the yellow colour of the skin was measured in 131 newborns at birth and on the third postnatal day. The cephalocaudal colour difference correlated positively to the bilirubin concentration (P much less than 0.001), to the reciprocal of the reserve albumin concentration (P less than 0.05) and to the squared hydrogen ion concentration (P = 0.04). The cephalocaudal colour gradient at birth correlated positively to the gradient at the third postnatal day (P less than 0.0004). The results support the hypothesis that the cephalocaudal progression of jaundice in icteric newborn infants may be explained by conformational changes in the young bilirubin-albumin complex.
The yellow colour of the skin was measured just after birth in 100 mature newborns using a jaundice meter. The skin colour was significantly correlated to the cord bilirubin concentration (rho = 0.26, p = 0.009), but unrelated to cord reserve albumin concentration, cord albumin concentration, cord haemoglobin concentration, birth weight and gestational age. In 123 other mature newborns, the basal yellow colour of the skin was estimated on the basis of meter readings taken just after birth. Correction of meter readings taken on the third postnatal day for the basal yellow skin colour improved neither the correlation between the meter readings and the bilirubin concentration nor the ability of the meter readings to predict hyperbilirubinaemia.
The relation between the yellow color of the skin, as read by the Minolta jaundice meter, and total bilirubin concentration, was compared in two groups of newborn infants suspected of having hyperbilirubinemia, but otherwise well. The study group comprised 73 neonates, icteric at the time of discharge from the nursery, and who were seen in the outpatient clinic at 5 to 14 days of age for checkup and blood sampling. The control group consisted of 52 neonates tested for hyperbilirubinemia at 1 to 4 days of age. Additionally, the relation between skin color and conjugated plasma bilirubin concentration was investigated in the study group. No significant differences in meter response to total bilirubin concentration was found between the two groups. The conjugated bilirubin concentration correlated significantly to the yellow skin color. The jaundice meter can be used as a test for hyperbilirubinemia in neonates at 5 to 14 days of age.