Bilirubin – Blood Tests for Biliary Disease (Nursing)

00:00 This one has one of my favorite medical terms, hyperbilirubinemia.

00:05 It's just fun to say, let's break it down.

00:09 Hyper means elevated, bilirubin is the substance that we're testing for, and emia means in blood.

00:16 So when someone has hyperbilirubinemia, that means they're bilirubin level is too high.

00:22 It's going to be larger than 1.2.

00:25 Keep in mind bilirubin is one of the waste products when old red blood cells are worn out and they're being removed and recycled by the liver.

00:34 Now, you need a good drainage system.

00:36 This is what happens and why the bilirubin level will be high in the blood.

00:41 Look at the liver.

00:42 You see got a big backup sign right over the liver because when bilirubin can't make it to the intestines to be broken down and excreted it will build up in other areas.

00:53 That's when the circulating blood levels of bilirubin will go up.

00:58 So normally I'm expecting liver to make the bile, drop it down to that hepatobiliary system, might store a little bit in the gallbladder, but it's going to keep on traveling down the hepatobiliary system till it ends up at the sphincter of oddi the ampulla of vater.

01:13 That's where it will be dropped into the small intestine, so the bile is delivered through that sphincter of oddi in the ampulla of vater.

01:22 If we've got a stone in there, bilirubin isn't able to make it down to that small intestine.

01:27 So that's why it's going to back up and you end up with bilirubin levels rising.