ALPHA FETOPROTEIN LEVELS IN NEONATAL HYPERBILIRUBINAEMIA

Abstract. Ikonen, R. S., Lindgren, J., Niemi, E., Sorto, A. E., Seppälä, M. and Ruoslahti, E. (Department of Paediatrics, Central Hospital of Tampere; Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, University of Helsinki; Department of Paediatrics, Central Hospital of Satakunta, Pori; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland and Division of Immunology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California, USA). Alpha fetoprotein levels in neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia. Acta Paediatr Scand, 69:59, 1980.—Serum alpha fetoprotein (AFP) levels were studied in 15 neonatally hyperbilirubinaemic children and 15 controls matched for sex and gestational age. All children were born between 38 and 40 weeks of gestation. During the first seven weeks of postnatal life hyperbilirubinaemic children had serum AFP concentrations over twice as high as controls. At the age of 5–7 days the mean (± S.E.M.) serum AFP values were 52.4.i-5.8 mg/I for hyperbilirubinaemic children and 24.8 ± 4.3 mg/l for controls ( p < 0.001). At 20–25 days of age they were 7.28 ± 1.10 and 2.75 ± 0.45 mg/I, respectively ( p < 0.001), and at 40–49 days 1.39 ± 0.21 and 0.46 ± 0.07 mg/l ( p < 0.001). However, no correlation was found between serum bilirubin and AFP concentrations in hyperbilirubinaemic children