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:
“Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit. If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Now, at midsummer, find me a perfect leaf or fruit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Of all the joys that lighten suffering earth, what joy is welcomed like a newborn child?”
—Dorothy L. Nolte (20th century)