Children's total bilirubin is high

People may not know much about total bilirubin, but they may have heard of neonatal jaundice. The source of jaundice is the excessive total bilirubin in the body. I believe everyone knows that if neonatal jaundice does not go away, it will have a great impact on the body. Therefore, if the total bilirubin is too high, it may cause some other diseases. People should not ignore this problem.

Because the liver function of infants and young children is not fully developed, the content of Y and Z proteins necessary for bilirubin absorption in the liver cells of newborn infants and young children is low, and they cannot effectively combine fat-soluble indirect bilirubin with glucuronic acid to form direct bilirubin. The ability to excrete conjugated bilirubin is poor, resulting in cholestasis and easily leading to high bilirubin. At the same time, high bilirubin is an abnormal signal of liver disease or bile duct obstruction. High bilirubin itself cannot indicate whether it is contagious or not. It must be combined with other examination indicators to determine whether it is contagious.

Total bilirubin is the sum of indirect bilirubin and direct bilirubin, so increased indirect bilirubin or increased direct bilirubin will cause increased total bilirubin.

1. Increased total bilirubin and indirect bilirubin: When suffering from hemolytic jaundice, a large number of red blood cells are destroyed, the indirect bilirubin increases, and exceeds the liver's conversion capacity, causing the indirect bilirubin to remain in the blood, thereby causing an increase in total bilirubin. It is generally common in diseases such as hemolytic jaundice, blood transfusion reactions due to blood type incompatibility, and neonatal jaundice.

2. Increased total bilirubin and increased direct bilirubin: If there is a problem with the bile duct, the direct bilirubin cannot be completely discharged into the intestine, but flows back into the blood, causing increased direct bilirubin in the serum. The total bilirubin will also increase, thus causing infarct-negative jaundice. Increased total bilirubin caused by this type of reason is common in biliary diseases such as cholecystitis and cholelithiasis.

3. Elevated total bilirubin, as well as elevated direct and indirect bilirubin: If there is a problem with the liver, that is, liver cells are damaged, the liver's ability to convert indirect bilirubin into direct bilirubin decreases. This will cause both direct and indirect bilirubin to be high at the same time, and the total bilirubin will also be high, which is hepatocellular jaundice. When you suffer from liver diseases such as acute icteric hepatitis, acute yellow liver necrosis, chronic active hepatitis, cirrhosis, etc., the total bilirubin will increase.

The three points mentioned above are the dangers of high total bilirubin. If you can learn about them, you can establish awareness and pay more attention to disease prevention. In fact, the phenomenon of high total bilirubin is quite common, but it is still recommended to go to the hospital for examination and receive treatment, which is beneficial to your health.