Incidence of ABO haemolytic disease of the newborn in a group of Hong Kong babies with severe neonatal jaundice.
Two methods were used to determine the incidence of ABO haemolytic disease of the newborn (ABO-HDN) among Hong Kong Chinese infants. The first method employed the Lui elution technique to elute anti-A,B from cord blood of Group A and B babies with a Group O mother, and set out to correlate the titration score of the eluate with the serum bilirubin of the neonates. This method proved to be a failure because of the poor correlation. The second method was mathematical. By comparing the 'expected' frequency of various mother-infant ABO combinations (based on the ABO distribution of our local population) with the 'observed' frequency of a cohort of infants with severe neonatal jaundice, it was found that only two combinations (O-A and O-B mother-infant pairs) were responsible for ABO-HDN, for which the incidence was 1 in 5 among infants with a serum bilirubin level of 300 mumols/L or more.
Feng
C S
CS
Haematology Laboratory and Blood Bank, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong.
Wan
C P
CP
Lau
J
J
Lam
T K
TK
Fok
T F
TF
D000017:ABO Blood-Group System; D004899:Erythroblastosis, Fetal / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000737:chemistry; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007567:Jaundice, Neonatal / Q000150:complications*
D000017:ABO Blood-Group System