[Usefulness of measuring bilirubin levels in cord blood for predicting hyperbilirubinemia in newborns].

Umbilical cord serum bilirubin concentration was studied in 800 healthy full-term newborns as a predictor of subsequent hyperbilirubinemia. If cord bilirubin was under 1 mg% the jaundice occurred in 2.4% newborns, where as 89% of the infants with cord bilirubin above 2.5 mg% became jaundiced.