There are a number of hereditary defects that affect the blood cells. This damage is one reason to recommend pig valves and valves made of other organic materials. The inflexible moving parts of heart valves damage RBCs as they flutter back and forth. Snake and spider venom, certain bacterial toxins, copper, and some organic industrial chemicals directly attack the membranes of red blood cells. Most important among these drugs are anti-malarial medications such as quinine, and vitamins C and K.
![pathological jaundice newborn pathological jaundice newborn](http://www.southerngem.in/images/neonatal-jaundice.jpg)
Other drugs cause hemolysis only in people with this disorder. Some of the drugs listed above are more likely to cause hemolysis in people with G6PD. G6PD is a deficiency that affects more than 200 million people in the world. Certain drugs in combination with a hereditary enzyme deficiency known as glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD).These medications include some antibiotic and anti-tuberculosis medicines drugs that regulate the heart-beat and levodopa, a drug used to treat Parkinson's disease. Some common drugs can cause hemolysis as a rare but sudden side effect. The pigment may reach the urine in sufficient quantities to cause "blackwater fever," an often lethal form of malaria. When enough cells burst at once, jaundice may result from the large amount of bilirubin formed from the hemoglobin in the dead cells. This process happens to most of the parasites simultaneously, causing the intermittent symptoms of the disease. When it is mature it breaks the cell apart and swims off in the blood. The malaria parasite develops inside red blood cells.
#PATHOLOGICAL JAUNDICE NEWBORN SKIN#
When it rises to 3 mg/dL or higher, the person's skin and the whites of the eyes become noticeably yellow. The normal total level of bilirubin in blood serum is between 0.2 mg/dL and 1.2 mg/dL. If bilirubin cannot leave the body, it accumulates and discolors other tissues. Bilirubin is a product of the breakdown of hemoglobin, which is the protein inside red blood cells. One particular substance, bilirubin, is yellow. Many of these outward-bound chemicals are excreted into the bile. The liver also collects chemicals from the blood for processing. It is the first stop for all nutrients, toxins, and drugs absorbed by the digestive tract.
![pathological jaundice newborn pathological jaundice newborn](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/newborn-neonataljaundice-120107084207-phpapp01/95/neonatal-jaundice-11-728.jpg)
The liver is the premier chemical factory in the body-most incoming and outgoing chemicals pass through it. The most important function of the liver is the processing of chemical waste products like cholesterol and excreting them into the intestines as bile.
![pathological jaundice newborn pathological jaundice newborn](https://bestpractice.bmj.com/image/672/en-gb/thumbnail/672-iline-1-ROW_tb.gif)
In order to understand jaundice, it is useful to know about the role of the liver in producing bile.