Optical fibre therapy could help beat neonatal jaundice blues

Neonatal jaundice -  a condition that affects around 60 per cent of babies born at term and 80 per cent of babies born prematurely - is typically treated using blue-light phototherapy within an incubator and requires the baby to lie undressed, with eye protection, beneath a lamp for extended periods.

Now, a team from Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, has developed illuminated pyjamas for babies that turn the treatment into a so-called "wellness experience".

Led by Luciano Boesel, the team from Empa’s Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles division created textiles with optically conductive fibres woven into them. Battery-operated LEDs serve as a light source for the light-conducting threads. Together with conventional thread, the optical fibres are woven into a satin material that distributes the light supply evenly throughout the fabric. The research is published in Biomedical Optics Express.

With a diameter of around 160 microns, the dimensions of the optical fibres match that of regular threads. Boesel's team determined the appropriate angle at which the threads must be bent during weaving so that the blue light stays in the therapeutic wavelength range of around 470 nanometres but is emitted onto the baby's skin, rather than staying in the fabric.