Albumin administration combined with phototherapy in treatment of hyperbilirubinaemia in low-birth-weight infants.

Fifty-nine jaundiced light treated newborn infants with low birth weight were studied. At onset of phototherapy 30 infants received 1 g human serum albumin per kg body weight as a 9% solution containing sodium caprylate and N-acetyltryptophan as stabilizers. 29 infants did not receive human serum albumin and served as controls. Blood samples were taken before initiation of the therapy and again 24 and 48 h thereafter, and the following determinations were made: Serum concentrations of unconjugated bilirubin, albumin, reserve albumin for binding of bilirubin by the [14C]-MADDS method, packed cell volume and pH. Before infusion of albumin it was found that the binding fraction of serum albumin, i.e. the sum of the serum concentrations of bilirubin-albumin and reserve albumin, constituted about half of the total serum albumin concentration. The other half was non-binding, in agreement with previous findings in neonates. The effect of albumin therapy was mainly an unexpected increase of the non-binding fraction of serum albumin, while the increase of the serum reserve albumin concentration was small and the concentration of bilirubin-albumin was not changed.