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Summary
Jaundice causes your skin and the whites of your eyes to turn yellow. Too much bilirubin causes jaundice. Bilirubin is a yellow chemical in hemoglobin, the substance that carries oxygen in your red blood cells. As red blood cells break down, your body builds new cells to replace them. The old ones are processed by the liver. If the liver cannot handle the blood cells as they break down, bilirubin builds up in the body and your skin may look yellow.
Many healthy babies have some jaundice during the first week of life. It usually goes away. However, jaundice can happen at any age and may be a sign of a problem. Jaundice can happen for many reasons, such as
Diagnosis and Tests
- Bilirubin Test (American Association for Clinical Chemistry)
- Liver Panel (American Association for Clinical Chemistry)
Treatments and Therapies
Specifics
- Gilbert's Syndrome (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
Genetics
- Genetics Home Reference: benign recurrent intrahepatic cholestasis (National Library of Medicine)
- Genetics Home Reference: congenital bile acid synthesis defect type 2 (National Library of Medicine)
- Genetics Home Reference: Crigler-Najjar syndrome (National Library of Medicine)
- Genetics Home Reference: Dubin-Johnson syndrome (National Library of Medicine)
- Genetics Home Reference: Gilbert syndrome (National Library of Medicine)
- Genetics Home Reference: progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (National Library of Medicine)
- Genetics Home Reference: Rotor syndrome (National Library of Medicine)
Health Check Tools
- Jaundice (DSHI Systems)
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Hyperbilirubinemia (National Institutes of Health)
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Jaundice (National Institutes of Health)
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Kernicterus (National Institutes of Health)
Journal ArticlesReferences and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
Children
- Jaundice in Healthy Newborns (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
- Newborn Jaundice (American Liver Foundation)
Patient Handouts
- Bilirubin - blood Also in Spanish
- Bilirubin - urine Also in Spanish
- Jaundice Also in Spanish
- Jaundice causes Also in Spanish
- Newborn jaundice Also in Spanish
- Newborn jaundice - discharge Also in Spanish