Once a significant amount of Rh-positive blood is released into the mother’s bloodstream, a process known as red-cell alloimmunization begins. The situation does not become dangerous, however, until there is leakage from the fetal circulation into the maternal circulation. The most common form of Rh incompatibility occurs when an Rh-negative mother and an Rh-positive father produce an Rh-positive fetus. Nonetheless, the term “Rh factor” has continued to be used to describe these human antigens, and the term “anti-Rh” is used to describe human antibodies formed against the Rh factor. This was soon proven wrong, as the composition of human sera and rhesus sera are different. They originally believed that Macacus rhesus, or Rhesus monkey, contained the same red blood cell surface antigen (Rh) as the one found in human red blood cells. Wiener coined the term “Rh factor” as the cause of the isoimmunization. It was not until a year later, Karl Landsteiner and Alexander S. The physicians reported that it was difficult to recreate these agglutinations for further testing since they still had not yet solved what was causing these isoimmunizations, or the development of antibodies in response to an antigenic stimulation. Initially, they believed that temperature was affecting agglutination in the patient’s blood, but they soon realized that temperature did not affect agglutination. The two physicians tried to discover what was causing the patient’s reaction. Further tests indicated that the patient’s serum, or the plasma in the blood minus the clotting factors, specifically agglutinated her donors’ cells-or rather, 80 percent of all her blood transfusions. Remarkably, the mother showed no blood transfusion reaction to twenty-one of those donors. Throughout her entire visit, the patient received transfusions from 104 Type O blood donors. When her vaginal bleeding resumed she was given a hysterectomy, followed by another blood transfusion from a different donor. Ten minutes after completing the transfusion, the patient developed a chill and began feeling pain in her head and legs. The patient received a blood transfusion from her husband, as the two of them were of blood-type O. The physicians had to expel the woman’s placenta to stop her from bleeding to death. The next day, she delivered an emaciated, stillborn fetus weighing only one pound and five ounces. The authors presented an anonymous, twenty-five year old woman who checked into a local hospital during her thirty-third week of pregnancy complaining of labor pains and vaginal bleeding. This first case was reported by immunohematologist, Philip Levine and physician, Rufus Stetson, who published their case in The Journal of the American Medical Association. The first case involving Rh incompatibility was reported in 1939, although the Rh factor, a protein found on the surface of red blood cells, had not yet been discovered. In severe cases, an intrauterine blood transfusion for the fetus may be required to correct the anemia. This causes the fetus to become anemic, which can lead to hemolytic disease of the newborn. These antibodies have the potential to cross the placenta and attach to fetal red blood cells, resulting in hemolysis, or destruction of the fetus’s red blood cells. Rh incompatibility occurs when a pregnant woman whose blood type is Rh-negative is exposed to Rh-positive blood from her fetus, leading to the mother’s development of Rh antibodies. You can find the full image and all relevant information here. Editor's note: Sarah Walls created the above image for this article.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |