Detailed Description:

This is a cross-sectional, pilot study to characterize the response of neonatal premature skin to DRS when excited with a white light source, and provide a baseline of how the collected spectra change with the maturation of the epidermal layer in the weeks to term gestation after birth. DRS spectra and BiliChek measurements will be performed on the study population admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The pilot data will be used to evaluate whether Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy spectra can be used to extract optical information on skin maturity as well as hemoglobin, melanin, and bilirubin concentrations. The investigators will extract spectra for each chromophore and the relative concentration from the Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy measurements. Extracted Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy spectra will be compared to published absorbance spectra for each chromophore. The criteria for success will be a high, positive correlation (r ≥ 0.85) between the extracted Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy bilirubin concentration and BiliChek-derived concentration. The following coded data will also be collected to investigate correlations with the Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy spectra: blood oxygen saturation, weight, ethnicity, corrected age, gestational age, sex, most recent complete blood count (if available, or partial count if not), most recent chemistry levels, lipids, liver profile, and blood gas (all if available). BiliChek measurements of bilirubin content will be compared to the extracted bilirubin contribution measured from the Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy spectra using linear regression and assessed using Pearson's correlation coefficient.}}