Title: Development of non-contact optical device for monitoring neonatal jaundice based on the skin colour of the upper trunk using skin reflectometry

Authors: K. Vignesh Kumar; R. Periyasamy; K. Senthil Kumar; D. Suresh Chelliah; D. Senguttuvan

Addresses: SRF, Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, NIT-Trichy, India ' Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, NIT-Trichy, India ' KMC Speciality Hospital, 6, Royal Rd, Cantonment, Tiruchirappalli, Trichy, India ' KMC Speciality Hospital, 6, Royal Rd, Cantonment, Tiruchirappalli, Trichy, India ' KMC Speciality Hospital, 6, Royal Rd, Cantonment, Tiruchirappalli, Trichy, India

Abstract: Jaundice occurs in new born babies within a few days of birth due to elevated bilirubin levels in the blood and also the most common causes of hospital admission of young infants. In general, skin colour changes in new born are visually assessed and total serum bilirubin (TSB) level are measured through blood sampling method for identifying the severity of jaundice. Transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) is often preferred as an alternative method to avoid frequent blood sampling. However, this method has a challenge in dealing with neonates in countries of the Indian subcontinent where babies have distinctive skin colour. Hence the aim of this paper was to develop a non-invasive, non-contact handheld optical device (460 nm LED light source and a photodiode) to measure bilirubin concentration in neonates of Indian subcontinent based on the skin reflectance. The device was tested with mock bilirubin samples (n = 8), human blood serum samples (n = 8) and on neonates in neonatal intensive care unit (n = 39). The results were validated with TSB value and positive correlation factor of R = 0.95 to 0.99 was observed between TcB and TSB by applying first order linear regression analysis. Therefore, the proposed indigenously developed device was successfully detected the jaundice by estimating the bilirubin concentration in neonates based on skin reflectance.

Keywords: neonatal jaundice; non-invasive bilirubin monitoring; optical method; skin reflectance; transcutaneous bilirubin; TcB; total serum bilirubin; TSB.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBET.2023.131707

International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, 2023 Vol.42 No.2, pp.135 - 149

Received: 21 Dec 2020
Accepted: 23 Aug 2021
Published online: 29 Jun 2023 *

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