Hemolytic Disease of The Newborn

Hemolytic disease of the newborn, also known as hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn, HDN, HDFN, or erythroblastosis fetalis, is an alloimmune condition that develops in a fetus, when the IgG molecules (one of the five main types of antibodies) produced by the mother pass through the placenta. Among these antibodies are some which attack the red blood cells in the fetal circulation; the red cells are broken down and the fetus can develop reticulocytosis and anemia. This fetal disease ranges from mild to very severe, and fetal death from heart failure (hydrops fetalis) can occur. When the disease is moderate or severe, many erythroblasts are present in the fetal blood and so these forms of the disease can be called erythroblastosis fetalis (or erythroblastosis foetalis).

Read more about Hemolytic Disease Of The Newborn:  Symptoms, Causes, Serological Diagnoses, Diagnosis, Treatment, Complications and Similar Conditions, In Animals

Famous quotes containing the words disease and/or newborn:

    I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad.
    I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:
    We’ll no more meet, no more see one another.
    But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter—
    Or rather a disease that’s in my flesh,
    Which I must needs call mine.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    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)