Significance of Red‐cell Irregular Antibodies in the Obstetric Patient

Anti‐Kell in pregnancy

“…To achieve this all women before and during childbearing age should receive Kell compatible blood whenever they are transfused. This policy which has already been adopted elsewhere (Pepperell et al 1977) obviously has implications for the National Blood Transfusion Service as well as individual blood banks. The problem of how best to deal with the rare cases of true isoimmune disease will remain, but the number of women needlessly subjected to invasive and potentially hazardous investigations and the risk of giving birth preterm to unaffected babies will be reduced.…”

Management of pregnancies complicated by anti‐Fya alloimmunization

“…The prevalence of anti-Fy a during pregnancy is between 0.01 and 5.4 percent. [2][3][4][5] Fy b antibodies are less common and have been found to cause only mild HDFN. 6,7 Given the low prevalence of anti-Fy a in pregnancy, little information exists regarding the appropriate management for affected pregnancies.…”

Anti‐E in pregnancy

“…Anti‐C and anti‐E are the most commonly implicated non‐D Rh antibodies in the pathogenesis of haemolytic disease of the newborn 1 . In 1977 Pepperell et al 2 reported the outcome of 44 women with anti‐E. This is the only published series that investigates the implications of anti‐E during pregnancy.…”