Jaundice occurs as a symptom of many disorders. Jaundice is a common sign of advanced liver disease. However, it may also be due to a benign or curable problem.

Most causes of jaundice can be classified according to where in the body they begin. Jaundice that originates with problems of hemolysis, or the breakdown of red blood cells, begins before blood reaches the liver.

Red blood cells only live for about 120 days before they are broken down into different materials that the body can use for various functions. Heme (the part of the cell that carries iron) is broken down into bilirubin. If red blood cells are broken down into bilirubin too quickly, the liver may be overwhelmed. When this occurs, most of the bilirubin is not eliminated from the bloodstream. This form of jaundice is most common in newborn infants.

The so-called "jaundice chip" was designed to screen for mutations in five separate genes. It consists of several thousand microscopic pieces of DNA on a small piece of glass. A small amount of the patient's blood (less than one milliliter) is used to incubate the chip. This produces chemical signals that make either normal or mutated gene sequences easily identifiable.

The chip works in nearly 100 percent of all cases when used to detect mutations in DNA that cause inherited jaundice in children, as well as other similar diseases. It uses recent advances in technology to more completely understand what the makeup is of genes known to causes jaundice and other liver diseases.

"Other chips have been developed to assess drug metabolism," lead researcher Dr. Jorge Bezerra said in a recent news release. "This is the first chip in the world that has been customized to diagnose genetic mutations in patients with inherited types of liver diseases."

Previous research has already identified the genes responsible for hereditary jaundice. However, because previous methods were incapable of detecting the cause of the condition, treatments tended to focus on minimizing symptoms and the need for liver transplantation. The new chip is different, in that it makes it possible for healthcare professionals to find the cause of the disease by surveying the patient's genetic code for mutations in their DNA.

"The jaundice chip is an extraordinary advance for our patients with liver diseases. It will improve diagnostic accuracy for perplexing diseases in infants and children, potentially decrease the need for invasive and costly studies, and allow us to develop specific treatment plans based on the correct genetic diagnosis," researcher Dr. Mitchell Cohen said in a recent news release.

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