The Incidence and Effects of Alloimmunization in Pregnancy During the Period 2000 - 2013.

INTRODUCTION: The objective of the analysis was to examine the epidemiological aspects of maternal alloimmunization and to determine the most common antibody specificities resulting in hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The retrospective epidemiological study encompasses all pregnant women who underwent immunohematological screening and the newborn treated for HDN in the period from 2000 to 2013 in the Herzegovina region.

RESULTS: The indirect Coombs test (ICT) detected antibodies against antigens in 384 (2.4%) pregnant women of the 18 800 who were tested at the Department of Transfusion Medicine. The direct Coombs test (DCT) detected antibodies against antigens in 160 (0.8%) newborn treated for HDN. The results of our 13-year study, in which 60% of the pregnant women had non-RhD antibodies, confirms this finding.

CONCLUSION: However, we have reached the 21st century and the burden of alloimmunisation in pregnancy is still on our backs. The problem of immunization and HDN is still present in our region, which is a neonatal and public health problem.