What is jaundice? What substance is present in abnormal levels? What can cause jaundice to occur? What difference may impede a doctor's ability to diagnose jaundice between people of European compared to African ancestry?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Jaundice simply means yellowing of skin and the whites of the eyes. It results when bilirubin levels in the blood
become elevated (hyperbilirubinemia); superficial blood vessels allow the imparting of yellow color to skin and
eyes. During erythrocyte breakdown, the heme is converted in the spleen and liver to a colored pigment called
bilirubin. Bilirubin is carried by plasma albumin to the liver where it is metabolized and incorporated into bile (see
Fig. 16.8 in the chapter). Bile is secreted into the digestive tract, and the bilirubin metabolites leave the body in the
feces. Small amounts of other bilirubin metabolites are filtered from the blood into the kidneys, where they
contribute to the yellow color of the urine. The accumulation of bilirubin can occur from multiple causes.
Newborns, whose fetal hemoglobin is degraded and replaced with adult hemoglobin, are particularly susceptible
to jaundice, so doctors closely monitor bilirubin levels in the first weeks of life. Another common cause of jaundice
is liver disease, where the liver is unable to process and/or excrete bilirubin. People with darker skin don't display
the yellowing to the same extent as lighter-skinned people, but the yellowing in the eyes should be about the same.