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Jaundice: Yellow staining of the skin and sclerae (the whites of the eyes) by abnormally high blood levels of the bile >pigment >bilirubin. The yellowing extends to other tissues and body fluids. Jaundice was once called the morbus regius (the regal disease) in the belief that only the touch of a king could cure it.
When >red blood cells are removed from the bloodstream, >hemoglobin, the >molecule in >red cells that carries oxygen, is broken down into bilirubin. The bilirubin is carried to the >liver and excreted into the >intestine as a component of bile.
Jaundice can indicate >liver or >gallbladder >disease. When the excretion of bilirubin is hindered, excess bilirubin passes into the blood, resulting in jaundice. >Inflammation or other abnormalities of liver cells hinder the excretion of bilirubin into bile. Or the bile ducts outside the liver may be blocked by a gallstone or a tumor. Jaundice can also result from the excessive breakdown of red blood cells (a process called >hemolysis) and too much bilirubin is released into the bloodstream. This occurs typically in the >hemolytic anemias (as opposed to the aplastic anemias in which not enough red cells are produced). Jaundice is common in newborns because there is some hemolysis during labor and delivery and the newborn's liver is immature and may not be fully up to the task of handling the bilirubin for a few days. In >Gilbert syndrome, the blood bilirubin levels are slightly increased, enough to cause mild jaundice. This >genetic condition is usually discovered serendipitously during routine screening tests of liver function. It causes no symptoms and no problems.
The figurative use of jaundice in to view things with a jaundiced eye refers to an attitude of distaste. This may reflect the distaste with which a jaundiced person views food, since severe jaundice typically brings loss of appetite and feelings >nausea. Jaundice is often said to have come from the French jaune for yellow. This is incorrect. The word jaundice stemmed from the Latin galbinus which described a light greenish-yellow color. In Old French this became jaunisse and, in crossing the English Channel, it became jaundice. In French jaundice is still jaunisse.
The term >icterus is synonymous with jaundice. A person who is icteric is jaundiced. Abnormally high blood bilirubin is termed >hyperbilirubinemia.