AUTOMATED PHOTOTHERAPY VEST Siti Asmah Daud 2 , Mitra Mohd. Addi 1 , Fauzan Khairi Che Harun 1,2 Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Bioscience and Biomedical Engieering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai Johor, Malaysia asmah_daud89@yahoo.com , mitra@fke.utm,my , fauzan@fke.utm.my Abstract Phototherapy is the most commonly used therapeutic intervention for the treatment of hyperbilirubinemia (jaundice). Fiberoptic, fluorescent tubes, halogen bulb and also LEDs are among regular light sources used for phototherapy. Phototherapy treatments using florescence light which is usually used in hospitals require continuous uninterrupted treatment period and need infants to be uncovered and only wear eye patches. These conditions are not preferable for infants as they tend to get cold easily and feel uncomfortable. It is also not encouraging for breastfeeding mothers as the treatment needs to be continuous. The rapid development of high intensity light-emitting diodes (LEDs) makes feasible the use of LEDs, among other light sources for use in the design of a garment phototherapy device. The paper describes the design of a phototherapy vest for infants, using ultraviolet (UV) LEDs and Arduino microcontroller for use in reducing bilirubin level in infants with jaundice. The garment phototherapy device is comfortable to wear and infants are no longer required to wear eye patches. The proposed device is portable, uses a small power supply and easy to be operated anywhere. Introduction Hyperbilirubinemia or also known as jaundice is a disease that is common in newborn infants. It is the yellowing of the skin and other tissues due to the increase of bilirubin level in an infant’s body. Almost 60% to 70% of infants at the age of 35 weeks to 38 weeks, have a greater risk of encountering jaundice which can either happen in premature or full-term infants [1]. Jaundice can be divided into physiologic and pathologic. Physiologic is compassionate and common in normal infant, whereas pathologic jaundice despite bile pigments in the brain stem, causing brain damage known as kerticterus. Jaundice happens due to several factors, which include blood incompatibility between the mother and infant (both have different blood rhesus), lack of enzyme which causes unstable red blood cells when exposed to certain substances, virus infections in infant such as rubella, herpes simplex and also syphilis, and immature liver condition during breakdown of red blood cells [2]. All of these factors may lead to increase in bilirubin level inside an infant’s body and it can cause death if not treated immediately. Conventionally, jaundice is treated by exposing the infant to sunlight, preferably in the early morning or late evening. It is important not to expose the infant directly to sunlight as it can cause burns to the infant’s sensitive skin. The infant can be placed in a room that receives sufficient sunlight and exposed for thirty (30) minutes. It is essential to get the infant to be comfortable during the treatment. The treatment is repeated several times in a day which usually should be able to decrease the infant’s bilirubin level within a week. Nowadays, the most common medical treatment to cure jaundice is through phototherapy. Infants will be exposed under blue light for a certain period of time until their bilirubin level decreases to a level that is safe for the infant. By exposing infants under UV light, bilirubin will be discrete from brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Institutional Repository