What is the significance of 1.5mg bilirubin lab results?

Answer 1

Depends on if you're talking about a newborn or an adult. Newborns have a higher normal range than adults. For instance, in Colorado we establish a certain range from the normal population that may differ from the rest of the nation. Adults can run up to 1.0 mg/dl. Anything from 0 to 1.0 mg/dl is considered normal. 1.5 mg/dl is high and may require additional lab work or other studies to determine the cause of the high bilirubin. The physician may request that the lab break the bilirubin test down into direct vs. indirect bilirubin. Direct bilirubin is a measure of how much of the bilirubin is not soluble and therefore not excreted in the urine. Sunlight can actually "conjugate the bilirubin" to make it more soluble in the urine and therefore excretable in the urine. This is why they put babies with "jaundice" or high bilirubin under bili lights. Bili lights will help turn the unconjugated biliruben into soluble biliruben which can then be excreted in the urine. Increased bilirubin in adults can point to several disease states like cirrhosis of the live due to viral hepatitis, Alcoholism or other factors. Very high bilirubin levels in infants can cause brain damage, so treatment like exchange transfusion may be in order.