Acute bilirubin encephalopathy

What it is

A rare neurologic disease characterized by lethargy, hypotonia, poor feeding, opisthotonus, and a typical high-pitched cry due to bilirubin accumulation in the globus pallidus, sub-thalamic nuclei, and other brain regions, resulting from severe neonatal unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia. Onset of symptoms is typically within the first three to five days of life. Additional features include fever, apnea, seizures, and coma. Especially respiratory failure or refractory seizures may lead to a fatal outcome.

Key facts

Prevalence

1-9 / 1 000 000 (at birth, United Kingdom)

Age of onset

Neonatal

Inheritance

Not applicable

Classified as

Clinical syndrome

Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.

Signs and symptoms

These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.

ICD-10 codes

ICD-10 has no distinct code for most rare diseases, so many are filed under the nearest available one. A shared code identifies the group, not this disease — the ORPHAcode above is what identifies it.

Related health topics

Reached through the ICD-10 categories this disease is filed under, so these describe the broader group rather than this disease specifically.

Cross-references