Mental Health

References

Cite

Share

Abstract

It thus becomes more and more important that when an anti-Rh serum has been obtained from an immunized mother or from some other source its constituent antibodies should be determined before it is used for routine testing. These necessary preliminary tests are beyond the scope of most laboratories, and the serum should be submitted to a specialist laboratory such as a regional transfusion laboratory or the Blood Group Reference Laboratory. Professor D. F. Cappell's wide experience of both the clinical and pathological aspects of haemolytic disease gives special value to his survey of the Rh factor which appears on page 323 of this issue. It has been widely held that the first one or two affected children in a family show only mild symptoms, but Cappell has found that the first recorded manifestation of the disease is usually one of the severer forms. Bessis' has published details of a large number of families, and, while in many of them the first affected child suffered from icterus gravis, in others there was a progressive development of symptoms from one child to the next. Again, in the case of the incidence of cerebral damage and its response to transfusion, Cappell disagrees somewhat with previous workers and is of the opinion that such damage can in most cases be prevented by early transfusion. In such matters as these the truth can be reached only by combining the observations of experienced workers; all who have access to large numbers of cases and are able to study them fully are under an obligation to publish their results. In many other matters connected with the Rh factor our clinical knowledge is inadequate; in particular more information is needed on the relation between parity of mothersj and the time at which they first become immunized. This is a matter which can only be settled by combining the results obtained in large numbers of antenatal clinics.