Talk:Crigler–Najjar syndrome

any objections if I simplify?

Hello, I was invited to take a look at this article, and my initial impression is that while it is comprehensible to doctors and other people with some science background, it's probably not very understandable to the general public. For example, the intro says:

Crigler-Najjar Syndrome is a rare disorder of bilirubin metabolism resulting in familial, congenital, non-hemolytic hyperbilirubinemia. This often results in neonatal kernicterus.

What this means to me is:

Crigler-Najjar Syndrome is a rare disorder affecting the metabolism of bilirubin, a chemical formed from the normal breakdown of blood. This results in an inherited form of non-hemolytic jaundice, often leading to brain damage in infants.

Would there be any objections if I make some changes to the article? I tend to think that medical and scientific articles on Wikipedia should give some sort of context so that lay readers can understand them, even if not completely. I suggest that the article move from a relatively simple introduction to more complex and detailed explanations further on.

I'll look over the article and see what I can do (along with everything else I want to do). Thanks. --Kyoko 19:35, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

I decided to be bold and changed the introduction. I felt that a lot of the terminology at this point would be better left hidden within the links, for example, the link to "kernicterus" is seen as "brain damage in infants".

I also felt that the precise details about differentiating between different types of hyperbilirubinemia shouldn't be at the very beginning, where they risk confusing people who just want to know a little about the disease. Therefore I've hidden those details in the intro. Although the following text is no longer visible, it is still in the article:

thus all characterized by increased mono- or unconjugated (indirect) bilirubin. Some puzzling features of these diseases have been clarified since the discovery of the uridine diphosphate glucuronyl transferase 1 (UGT1) gene complex. The differential diagnosis of hyperbilirubinemia can be divided into 3 broad groups: (1) disorders of excessive bilirubin production (hemolysis, ineffective erythropoiesis), (2) impaired hepatic handling of bilirubin (hepatitis, cirrhosis, inherited syndromes), and (3) defective bile outflow (intrahepatic or extrahepatic biliary obstruction).

I think that these details can be reinserted with some rewording, but I will have to think about what to say.

I hope my changes so far are satisfactory. --Kyoko 20:04, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

"only a few hundred cases of CNS are known to exist."

This seems to me as way too few... is this sentence regarding the whole world or a specific country? (I will throw a shot in the dark and say this is regarding the USA only). Anyways, its always cool to know one's uniqueness... I was diagnosed CNS type II about 10 years ago. NeoGenPT (talk) 16:15, 27 January 2010 (UTC)