Newborn Screening for Biliary Atresia

Biliary atresia is a serious pediatric liver disease. It is among the leading causes of newborn cholestasis, the foremost reason for cirrhosis and liver-related death in children, and the most frequent indication for liver transplant in the pediatric population. The condition results from an idiopathic, rapidly progressive, fibrosclerosing obliterative injury to large bile ducts during the first months of life. Although not an inherited disease, biliary atresia is a rare orphan liver disease that occurs in 1:15  000 to 1:20 000 live births in North America and Western Europe, with the highest incidence rates in Asia (1:6000 to 1:9000) and French Polynesia (1:3000).
Source: JAMA - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research