When hyperbilirubinemia increases past a mild level, it leads to jaundice, raising the risk of progressing to kernicterus.
12.
Opisthotonus in the neonate may be a symptom of meningitis, tetanus, severe kernicterus, or the rare Maple syrup urine disease.
13.
This situation can be especially dangerous if not quickly treated, as the high bilirubin causes irreversible neurological disability in the form of kernicterus.
14.
Kernicterus can develop in nearly any infant with jaundice, which affects more than half of all U . S . newborns, he said.
15.
High levels of bilirubin can cause brain damage ( kernicterus ), leading to cerebral palsy, auditory neuropathy, gaze abnormalities and dental enamel hypoplasia.
16.
Vertical supranuclear ophthalmoplegia has also been associated with metabolic disorders, such as Niemann-Pick disease, Wilson's disease, kernicterus, and barbiturate overdose.
17.
Maisels said doctors are not certain how bilirubin damages the brain, but autopsies of infants with kernicterus have found yellow staining in a region of the brain that controls movement.
18.
Maisels said doctors aren't certain how bilirubin damages the brain, but autopsies of infants with kernicterus have found yellow staining in a region of the brain that controls movement.
19.
The rise in kernicterus is especially troubling because the condition is preventable if jaundice is treated early, said Maisels, chairman of pediatrics at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich.
20.
Kernicterus is believed to have been somewhat common in the 1940s and 1950s, before the development of a jaundice treatment called exchange transfusion, which replaces a newborn's blood with adult blood.
