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14 - Fetal and neonatal treatment of alloimmune thrombocytopenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Michael F. Murphy
Affiliation:
National Blood Service, Oxford, UK, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Rachel Rayment
Affiliation:
National Blood Service, Oxford, UK
David Allen
Affiliation:
National Blood Service, Oxford, UK
David Roberts
Affiliation:
National Blood Service, Oxford, UK, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Andrew Hadley
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Peter Soothill
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
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Summary

Alloimmune thrombocytopenia is the commonest cause of neonatal thrombocytopenia, occurring in one in 1000–2000 live births; this is equivalent to 400–800 cases per year in the UK. The pathogenesis of alloimmune thrombocytopenia is similar to HDFN (Chapter 1):

• The mother is negative for a platelet alloantigen which the fetus has inherited from the father, and maternal alloimmunization occurs in a proportion of women who may have a genetic predisposition to become immunized (Section 1.3.3).

• Placental transfer of IgG antibodies may result in moderate to severe thrombocytopenia as early as 16 weeks’ gestation.

• The most clinically significant incompatibility is for HPA-1a, the frequency of this antigen being 97.5% in Caucasians (Section 12.3).

• HPA-1a alloimmunization is HLA class II restricted; there is a strong association with HLA-DRw52a (HLA-DR3*0101), which is present in one in three of Caucasian women. Although the negative predictive value of the absence of HLA-DR3*0101 for HPA-1a alloimmunization in HPA-1a-negative women is >99%, the positive predictive value of its presence for alloimmunization has been estimated to be only 35%, and not all alloimmunized mothers will have babies with thrombocytopenia (Section 4.2).

• The antibody titre and isotype have not been shown to correlate consistently with the development or severity of disease (Section 12.4.4.2).

Type
Chapter
Information
Alloimmune Disorders of Pregnancy
Anaemia, Thrombocytopenia and Neutropenia in the Fetus and Newborn
, pp. 253 - 278
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

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