Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Bilirubin |
BilirubinNoun1. An orange-yellow pigment in the bile that forms as a product of hemoglobin; excess amounts in the blood produce the yellow appearance observed in jaundice. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Etymology: Bilirubin \Bil`i*ru"bin\, noun. [Latin expression bilis biel ruber red.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Health | A bile pigment that is a degradation product of HEME. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Bilirubin is a yellow breakdown product of haem (heme in American English). Haem is a special ring shaped molecule that is found in haemoglobin. The haem ring holds the iron atoms of haem and is essential to the oxygen carrying capacity of blood.
Bilirubin is essentially a waste product, formed when haemoglobin is broken down. It is not soluble in water and is carried to the liver bound onto albumin. Bilirubin is made water soluble in the liver by conjugation with glucuronic acid. As part of bile, the soluble bilirubin then passes through the common bile duct and is either temporarily stored in the gallbladder or passes right away into the gut. Some of the excreted bilirubin may be reabsorbed (entero-hepatic circulation). Bacteria in the intestines modify bilirubin, causing the brown color of feces. The yellow colour of urine is a result of products derived from bilirubin.
In diseases where too much haemoglobin is broken down or the removal of bilirubin does not function properly, the accumulating bilirubin in the body causes jaundice.
Bilirubin is found in blood either bound to albumin ("indirect") or in the soluble form ("direct"). The terms "direct" and "indirect" refer to the fact that soluble bilirubin can be measured directly, whereas insoluble, or indirect, bilirubin must be solubilised before measurement. Bilirubin is broken down by light, so blood tubes (especially serum tubes) should be protected from such exposure.
Although both direct and indirect bilirubin can be measured separately, it is more common to just measure total bilirubin. When we try to further elucidate the causes of jaundice or increased bilirubin it is usually simpler to look at other liver function tests (especially the enzymes ALT, AST, GGT, Alk Phos), blood film examination (haemolysis etc.) or evidence of infective hepatitis (e.g. Hepatitis A, B, C, delta E etc).
Bilirubin is basically an excretion product and the body does not control levels. Bilirubin levels reflect the balance between production and excretion.
Thus strictly speaking there is not a normal level of bilirubin.
The reference range for total bilirubin is 2 - 14 μmol/L. For direct bilirubin, it is 0 - 4 μmol/L.
Mild rises in bilirubin:
Bilirubin blood tests
Moderate rise in bilirubin:
Very High levels:
Bilirubin toxicity
Hyperbilirubinaemia in the neonate can lead to kernicterus in which there is damage to certain brain regions. The newborn has abnormal reflexes and unusual eye movements.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Bilirubin."
Synonyms: BilirubinSynonyms: haematoidin (n), hematoidin (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Bilirubin |
| English words defined with "bilirubin": Bilifuscin, Biliverdin ♦ Cholochrome, Cholophaein ♦ Hydrobilirubin, hyperbilirubinemia ♦ icterus ♦ jaundice ♦ stercobilinogen ♦ urobilinogen, Urohaematin. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "bilirubin": Bile Pigments, Biliverdine ♦ Crigler-Najjar Syndrome ♦ Gallstones, Gilbert Disease, Gilbert Syndrome, Glucuronides ♦ Hyperbilirubinemia, Hereditary ♦ Jaundice, Chronic Idiopathic, Jaundice, Neonatal. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Bilirubin" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. Hungarian (bilirubin). |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Pigment stones are small, dark stones made of bilirubin. (references) | |
Bile contains water, cholesterol, fats, bile salts, and bilirubin. (references) | ||
Bile salts break up fat, and bilirubin gives bile and stool a brownish color. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Bilirubin" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Bilirubin" is used about 51 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 51 | 47,619 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "bilirubin"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 胆红 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Danish | bilirubin. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Dutch | bilirubine, bilipheine, biliphaeine, bilifulvine. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Finnish | sappikivi (biliary calculus, biliary concretion, bilirubin concrement, bilirubin concretion, cholelith, gallstone). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
French | bilirubine, biliphéïne, bilifulvine. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
German | Bilirubin, Biliphaein, Bilifulvin, Haematoidin, Cholepyrrhin. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Greek | χολερυθρίνη. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | bilirubin. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Italian | bilirubina, bilifeina. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ilirubinbay bilirrubina. (various references) bilirrubina. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "bilirubin": bilirubins. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "bilirubin" (pronounced 'Bil`i*ru"bin'): Aubin, Bobbin, Calumbin, Chrysarobin, haemoglobin, hemoglobin, Indirubin, Methaemoglobin, Nubbin, Rabbin, Rubin, Sinalbin, Sorbin, thrombin. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-b-i-i-i-l-n-r-u" | |
-4 letters: blini, blurb, bruin, burin, libri. | |
-5 letters: birl, blin, blub, blur, brin, bulb, burl, burn, liri, nurl, ruin. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-b-i-i-i-l-n-r-u" | |
+1 letter: bilirubins. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)42 69 6C 69 72 75 62 69 6E |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-... .. .-.. .. .-. ..- -... .. -. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000010 01101001 01101100 01101001 01110010 01110101 01100010 01101001 01101110 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)B i l i r u b i n |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0042 0069 006C 0069 0072 0075 0062 0069 006E |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)367578758487687580 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Quotations: Non-fiction | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Derivations | 9. Rhymes 10. Anagrams 11. Orthography 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
