Question

Sclera and skin of the person suffering from jaundice turns yellow. Explain.

Answer 1

Hint: Jaundice is a medical condition in which the skin, whites of the eyes and mucous membranes turn yellow in color because of an increase in a yellow-orange pigment.

Complete Answer:
- Jaundice is caused by a high level of bilirubin, a yellow-orange bile pigment. Bile is fluid secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder of the human body. Bilirubin is formed from the breakdown of red blood cells or erythrocytes.

 Symptoms of jaundice include fever, chills, abdominal pain, flu-like symptoms, change in skin color, dark-colored urine and clay-colored stool.The severity of these symptoms depends on the underlying causes and how quickly the disease develops in an individual.

 Jaundice is caused by a disorder during bilirubin production. It can be caused before the production of bilirubin (unconjugated jaundice) due to increase in levels of bilirubin caused by either reabsorption of a large hematoma which is a collection of clotted or partially clotted blood under the skin or hemolytic anemias in which blood cells are destroyed and removed from the bloodstream before their normal lifespan is over
- Additionally, it can be caused during production of bilirubin, jaundice can be caused by viruses, alcohol, autoimmune disorders, rare genetic metabolic defects or medicines, including penicillins, oral contraceptives, and estrogenic or anabolic steroids.
- Also, after bilirubin is produced jaundice may be caused by obstruction of the bile ducts from gallstones, Inflammation of the gallbladder, gallbladder cancer, pancreatic tumor.
- When the liver cells of the body are damaged due to hepatitis infection or injury, the bilirubin pigments increase in human blood. This condition is called Hyperbilirubinemia. This leads to yellowing of the sclera and skin of the body.

Note: Sometimes jaundice is not caused by an infection. In this case symptoms such as weight loss or itchy skin occur. However, if jaundice is caused by pancreatic or biliary tract cancers the most common symptom is abdominal pain.