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Duration of hemolysis among infants with hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn

Journal of Perinatology volume 45, pages 268–270 (2025)Cite this article

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Among infants with hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN) little data exist on the lifespan of their passively acquired red blood cell (RBC) alloantibodies [1, 2]. Herein we assessed this issue in a pilot study where infants with HDFN had their hemolytic rate measured serially using end-tidal breath carbon monoxide (ETCOc) [3]. Additionally, we collected information on the pathogenesis of the “late anemia,” commonly occurring when these infants are several weeks old, and frequently necessitating late RBC transfusions [1, 4, 5].

ETCOc measurements were made using the FDA-approved CoSense monitor (Capnia Inc. Foster City, CA). The device quantifies carbon monoxide (CO) in exhaled breath corrected for ambient CO. If a neonate has hemolysis, the ETCOc will be >95th percentile upper reference for healthy neonates (>1.7 ppm) [3].

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Data availability

A deidentified data set is available by contacting the corresponding author.

Code availability

A computer code for statistical analysis is available by contacting the corresponding author.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Timothy M. Bahr, Robin K. Ohls & Robert D. Christensen

  2. Women and Newborns Research, Intermountain Health, Murray, UT, USA

    Timothy M. Bahr & Robert D. Christensen

  3. Comprehensive Fetal Care Center at Dell Children’s Medical Center and Department of Women’s Health, Dell Medical School, Austin, TX, USA

    Kenneth J. Moise Jr & Kathy Lowry

  4. Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, and Intermountain Health, Murray, UT, USA

    Martha A. Monson & Ibrahim A. Hammad

  5. Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Sasidhar Goteti

  6. Transfusion Medicine, Department of Pathology, Intermountain Health, Murray, UT, USA

    Sarah J. Ilstrup & Paul Vanasco

Authors
  1. Timothy M. Bahr
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  2. Kenneth J. Moise Jr
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  3. Kathy Lowry
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  4. Martha A. Monson
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  5. Ibrahim A. Hammad
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  6. Sasidhar Goteti
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  7. Sarah J. Ilstrup
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  8. Paul Vanasco
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  9. Robin K. Ohls
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  10. Robert D. Christensen
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Contributions

TMB, KJM, KL, IAH, MM, SG, PV, SJI, RKO, and RDC: conception and design, collection and assembly of data, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript writing, editing, and final approval of manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Timothy M. Bahr.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The Institutional Review Boards of Intermountain Health (#1051706) and Dell Children’s Medical Center (#00005232) approved the study protocol, and written informed consent was given by parents. All study activities were performed in accordance with institution IRB and privacy guidelines and regulations.

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Bahr, T.M., Moise, K.J., Lowry, K. et al. Duration of hemolysis among infants with hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn. J Perinatol 45, 268–270 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-024-02163-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-024-02163-3

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