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short answer for erythroblastosis foetalis

A potentially life threatening blood disorder in a foetus or a newborn, arising due to incompatibility with mother’s blood.‏
Erythroblastosis fetalis, also known as hemolytic disease of the newborn or immune hydrops fetalis, is a disease in the fetus or newborn caused by transplacental transmission of maternal antibody, usually resulting from maternal and fetal blood group incompatibility. Rh incompatibility may develop when a woman with Rh-negative blood becomes pregnant by a man with Rh-positive blood and conceives a fetus with Rh-positive blood. Red blood cells (RBCs) from the fetus leak across the placenta and enter the woman's circulation throughout pregnancy with the greatest transfer occurring at delivery. This transfer stimulates maternal antibody production against the Rh factor, which is called isoimmunization. In succeeding pregnancies, the antibodies reach the fetus via the placenta and destroy (lyse) the fetal RBCs. The resulting anemia may be so profound that the fetus may die in utero. Reacting to the anemia, the fetal bone marrow may release immature RBCs, or erythroblasts, into the fetal peripheral circulation, causing erythroblastosis fetalis. Maternal-fetal incompatibilities of ABO blood types leading to neonatal erythroblastosis are less severe and less common than those of the Rh factor.

Prevention

With any pregnancy, whether it results in a live birth, miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, blood typing is a universal precaution against blood compatibility disease. Blood types cannot be changed, but adequate forewarning allows precautions and treatments that limit the danger to unborn babies.


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