A blood test for bilirubin is done to check the quantity of bilirubin that is present in the blood. This is formed when the old red blood cells are broken down by the liver. Bilirubin is yellow or brownish yellow in color and is found in bile. The blood test for bilirubin is performed to see if the liver is functioning properly and to rule out the possibility of any disease of the liver like hepatitis or cirrhosis, to check if the bile ducts are blocked and to diagnose conditions like hemolytic anemia that lead to destroying the red blood cells. High amounts of bilirubin in the blood maybe due to certain infections like an infection in the gall bladder or Gilbert's syndrome that affects the way bilirubin is processed by the liver. High levels of bilirubin may also be the result of jaundice in case of certain people where you can observe that the skin and the white portion of the eyes turn yellow. Low levels of the same could be a result of the intake of certain medicines like vitamin C and theophylline. The test is carried out by removing blood from the vein which is collected and sent to the lab for testing.
Before the test, you should not eat nor drink anything for at least four hours. Also there are a number of drugs that alleviate the amount of bilirubin in the blood and epinephrine is one of them. If at all, this has been taken by your body, it hardly lasts for a couple of hours after which it is flushed out of your body. The drug therefore does not have much of an effect on the results of the test. Even after it is produced, it breaks down and is flushed out of the body very quickly because it is said to have a very short &"half life". In fact, some amounts of epinephrine are given to patients along with certain other drugs to enhance the heart rate and blood pressure and it has had no negative effect. However, it is best you take the advice from an expert and clear out all these doubts before undergoing the blood test. Inaccurate results may also be attributed to the consumption of caffeine before the test which causes the level of bilirubin to go down. Starving for a very long time tends to raise the bilirubin levels in the blood.
Submitted by M T on April 7, 2010 at 11:12