The relationship between Erythrocyte Alloimmunization and Pregnancy is that a pregnant woman can suffer from this ailment, which takes place when the immune system of a woman gets sensitized to foreign erythrocyte surface antigens. Erythrocyte Alloimmunization is also known as maternal alloimmunization or isoimmunization. This stimulates the production of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies. In this relationship of Erythrocyte Alloimmunization and Pregnancy, the most common routes of maternal sensitization take place via fetomaternal hemorrhage (the transplacental passage of fetal erythrocytes) or blood transfusion that is associated with trauma, spontaneous or induced abortion, delivery, invasive obstetric procedures, or ectopic pregnancy.
The immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies can cross the placenta of the pregnant woman during pregnancies in alloimmunized women, and, if the fetus reacts positively to the erythrocyte surface antigens, the result will be hemolysis of fetal erythrocytes and anemia. This in turn, can progress to potentially disastrous effects for the fetus like a high-output cardiac failure syndrome known as hydrops fetalis.
Causes of Erythrocyte Alloimmunization
Blood transfusion can be one of the major causes of Erythrocyte Alloimmunization in pregnant women. Fetomaternal hemorrhage also causes maternal alloimmunization. There are two types of Fetomaternal hemorrhage: antepartum, and intrapartum. If a woman undergoes spontaneous or therapeutic abortions, she may be fall victim to Erythrocyte Alloimmunization. Placental abruption can also be a cause of this problem, thus establishing a relationship between Erythrocyte Alloimmunization and pregnancy.
Ectopic pregnancy can be one of the risk factors giving rise to the obstetrical complication of maternal alloimmunization. If the woman undergoes abdominal trauma, then also there are chances of Erythrocyte Alloimmunization. Other obstetric procedures like amniocentesis, external cephalic version, chorionic villus sampling (CVS), manual removal of the placenta, and percutaneous umbilical blood sampling can be the causes of Erythrocyte Alloimmunization.
Several types of predictive measures are available presently for estimating severity of this fetal disease.
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Some of these include: perinatal ultrasonography for assessing the well-being of the fetus and identifying findings consistent with hydrops (like effusions, ascites, edema), amniotic fluid spectrophotometric measurements of bilirubin for estimating the degree of anemia and hemolysis, Doppler ultrasonography for measuring the velocity of the blood flow occurring in the fetal middle cerebral artery as an anemia index, and fetal blood sampling (FBS) or percutaneous umbilical blood sampling (PUBS) for directly measuring the fetal hematocrit.
The treatment of lately recognized Erythrocyte Alloimmunization accompanied with intraumbilical transfusions is considered to be tougher and is more often connected to other complications.
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