Hemolytic Disease Of The Newborn (ABO)
In ABO hemolytic disease of the newborn (also known as ABO HDN) maternal IgG antibodies with specificity for the ABO blood group system pass through the placenta to the fetal circulation where they can cause hemolysis of fetal red blood cells which can lead to fetal anemia and HDN. In contrast to Rh disease, about half of the cases of ABO HDN occur in a firstborn baby and ABO HDN does not become more severe after further pregnancies.
The ABO blood group system is the best known surface antigen system, expressed on a wide variety of human cells. For Caucasian populations about one fifth of all pregnancies have ABO incompatibility between the fetus and the mother, but only a tiny minority develop symptomatic ABO HDN. The latter only occurs in mothers of blood group O because they can produce enough IgG antibodies to cause hemolysis.
Although very uncommon, cases of ABO HDN have been reported in infants born to mothers with blood groups A and B.
Read more about Hemolytic Disease Of The Newborn (ABO): Causes, Moderating Factors, Diagnosis, Treatment
Famous quotes containing the words disease and/or newborn:
“The inconveniences and horrors of the pox are perfectly well known to every one; but still the disease flourishes and spreads. Several million people were killed in a recent war and half the world ruined; but we all busily go on in courses that make another event of the same sort inevitable. Experientia docet? Experientia doesn’t.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“The absolute dependence of a newborn infant inspired many things in me, but it did not activate any magical knowledge about what to do for the next twenty years.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)