(1) Maternal alloimmunization against fetal platelets can cause fetal and neonatal thrombocytopenia (NAIT).
(2) Improvements in antenatal diagnosis and in utero therapy facilitate appropriate management of pregnancy at risk for NAIT.
(3) There is evidence that in certain cases antibodies against blood group antigens A or B may cause NAIT.
(4) Recent evidence that NAIT is more common than has previously been recognised, a better understanding of the molecular basis of platelet serology and advances in technology, which have made it possible to take blood samples from fetuses and transfuse them in utero, have all contributed to a growing interest in this condition.
(5) Neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) is caused by platelet antigen incompatibility between the mother and fetus.
(6) Neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) occurs when maternal alloantibodies to antigens present on fetal platelets cause their immune destruction resulting in thrombocytopenia in the newborn infant or fetus.
(7) Neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) is due to fetomaternal incompatibility for platelet specific antigens, most frequently HPA-1a (PLA1) and HPA-5b (BRa).
(8) A 31 year old woman was assessed following delivery of her second child affected by neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT).
(9) An immune response to human platelet antigens (HPA), as in neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) and post-transfusion purpura (PTP), is the exception rather than the rule and evidence is accumulating for the importance of human leucocyte antigen (HLA) class II restriction in this situation.
(10) This report of an unaffected pregnancy in a woman with a history of previous pregnancies complicated by NAIT illustrates the role of paternal and fetal platelet phenotyping in managing existing pregnancies at risk of NAIT.
(11) The sera of 219 Zwa-positive mothers who gave birth to children with clinically suspected neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) were tested for platelet-reactive antibodies using the platelet adhesion immunofluorescence test and a glycoprotein-specific immunoassay (MAIPA).
(12) Because there is high risk that subsequent pregnancies might be also affected by NAIT, the mothers of a previously affected child should be managed similarly to the HPA-1b mothers (PIA2, Zwb).
(13) Platelet specific alloantibodies cause neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT), posttransfusion purpura (PTP) and may be found in patients who are refractory to HLA-matched platelet transfusion.
(14) In accordance with established criteria, the Sra antigen represents the first example of a "private" platelet alloantigen that bears significance in rare instances of NAIT.
(15) We report our experience with the serological diagnosis of 14 NAIT cases using new performing techniques such as western blotting (WB) and MAIPA (monoclonal antibody specific immobilization of platelet antigens).
(16) This is a report of 39 cases of NAIT involving the HPA-5b antigen.
(17) Bra antibodies were from mothers of children with neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT), and anti-Brb was found in the serum of a polytransfused patient.
(18) NAIT is mainly due to alloimmunization; the frequency varying among ethnic groups.
(19) Immunization against these alloantigens is implicated in NAIT and poly-transfused patients.
(20) In the serum of a mother who gave birth to a child with the typical clinical picture of NAIT we found an antibody directed against the new platelet antigen Sra.