Anyone with medical knowledge??

[chip91]

This is OT from Disney, but my sil is 5 mo's pregnant and found out she has Anti-Lutheran B antibody, it is very rare and her Dr. can't help her out much as far as experience with this(this is a family pract. not ob/gyn) she will see a specialist when she is close to full term..The only thing her Dr. told her is give her a few ways it could affect the baby: mild to severe jaundice, congestive heart failure or something wrong where once the baby is born they will have to take out the blood and clean it & put it back in (sorry but I'm no medical professional so these are lamens' terms)..

Anyway, there isn't much info on the internet, so if ANYONE knows anything about this antibody and how it may or may not affect the baby, please let me know (you can PM me)

Thanks so much all!

Chip

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I tried looking some stuff up for you and it seemed a little vague. I will have to see if I can find more. I strongly suggest that she see a high risk OB/GYN instead of a Family Practioner. I would not wait until she is close to full term because sometimes there are things that can be done as the baby develops. It would also be better to have a doctor who is more familiar with pregnancy and all that comes with it. JMHO. I went to a FP once and all the degrees on the wall were for Dental Medicine and just a few for Family Pract. They can specialize in anything and then become a FP. I hope you are not offended by this because that is not my intent but she needs to get to an OB/GYN asap. I will try to do some research when I have a bit more time.

 

[chip91]

Not offended at all, I actually tried to persuade her today, PLEASE see an ob/gyn, not sure I got thru to her or not, and her FP even told her she doesn't want to say much, because she has no experience at all.. She also talked to an OB nurse who has been a nurse for 20 years, and she has never seen any patients with the disease..

I'm going to keep searching & trying to gently persuade her to go to a specialist..

Thanks for trying to help!
Chip

 

[java]

Not a medical person..but I just wanted to say it sounds alot like being RH negative(which I am) But I too just wanted to say she should get herself to an OBGYN ASAP to clear up what exactly it is that she has. and what can be done(the taking all the babies blood out is something they told me also and it sounds horribly scary but is so rare and also quite an old fashioned way of dealing with the problem)

 

[all4fun]

Jmho, but I was wondering why her doc doesn't just refer her to a high-risk doc now? Seems like the prudent thing to do...

Best of luck. I hope she goes and sees one on her own. Can't be to careful in pregnancy!

Cheryl

 

[allysmom1218]

I just had a baby in April 04, in which I had both of these and also gestational Diabetes. Yes, I was a total mess. I guess that's wait I get for having a baby at age 39. The Rh negative I had in 2 other pregnancy also. All they did was give me an injection called Rogam during my pregnancy. After my DD was born they tested her to see if she was Rh negative also, which she wasn't so I had to get another Rogam injection before I left the hospital. They really make it sound terrible but with todays medicine it's really not that bad. As far as the Strept B, I had to have 8 hours of antibiotics before delivery. My OB/Gyn said 35% of women have Strept B, the only time it really affects you is during pregnancy. Well after all of this, I had a beautiful 8lb baby girl, who was as healthy as I could of ever wanted. To this day, she has never been to the DR. for anything other than her immunizations. I am a Medical Assistant so when I had all these complications, I used to just sit and worry all the time, but everything turned out GREAT. Good luck to you and your family. I am sure everything will be all right just like it was for me.

 

[chip91]

For the thoughts, still trying to convince her on the ob/gyn.. No it's not RH factor, I asked her that and she said no... Whatever she has they told her to not have any more kids (and this will be #4) because they said it will only be worse in any further pg's. We just keep praying for her & the baby, she's a much more positive person than I would be in this situation, while she is worried and wants to do everything she possibly can, she also has the feelings that God gave her this baby, and she will deal with whatever the outcomes could possibly be...

Sounds like from her Dr's standpoint there isn't much an ob/gyn can do, but the specialist she will see close to full term is a pediatric blood dr (not sure what the formal title is)..

Thanks agian!
Chip

 

[TDS373X]

I am a medical technologist(have been for over 20 years) and this is the kind of stuff we test for. Along about 4 or 5 months you have a prenatal work up to test for lots of different things HIV, Hepatitis, STD's etc but you also have done what's called a type and screen. this is where you have your blood typed which gives you the blood group A,B, AB, or O and your Rh factor either positive or negative those are the tests considered the type part of the test. The screen part of the test is an antibody screen where your are screened for lots of different blood group antibodies Lutheran being one of them. Although I do not know what the possible implications for the baby may be and depending on whether or not the baby carries the same antibodies it may or may not be a problem. It is similar to the Rh problem in that it is related to the blood typing but is definatly not common enough I don't think for there to a a RhoGam(the med you give for Rh incompatability) type medication for it. It would be much better to err on the side of caution then to just wait and see but I'm a knowledge is power kind of person not everybody is but what would a 2nd opinion hurt besides this is something she will have to deal with with every pregnancy why not take care if it now? Best of luck trying to get her to go..

 

[my2kidsmom]

Hi,

I am a NICU RN married to a physician, so I made him do some research. What he found is that being Anti-Lutheran B causes the red cells to have a shorter life span. It MIGHT cause mild jaundice as a newborn. Many people with this have a need for higher dosages of medications to achieve a steady state - I take Synthroid every day, and if this affected me, I might need more every day to achieve the same effect. If the baby ever needs a transfusion for any reason, he/she will need an Anti-Lutheran B blood donor.

What he was able to find was this: it affects only 0.02% of the population. It seems to be relatively rare, but not too bad in the big scheme of things. The jaundice is not that bad - both my kids (now 4 & 8 1/2) were jaundiced, my 4-year-old was under lights for 3 days. It is a good thing to be aware of, but it should not affect their lives in a negative way since they know about it.

Anyway, hope this was helpful. If I can help, let me know.

Lisa

 

[mommy*RN]

I thank God for people like you! It is so great that you are so concerned for your SIL's health and the health of your future niece or nephew! I pray for the health of both!

I really don't know much about the condition you mentioned, but I also looked some stuff up on the internet. The best explaination I can come up with is that it is somewhat LIKE the Rh factor, however it is much more rare AND there is no immune globulin that can be given (like RhoGAM). So something you might consider looking up would be Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn. A lot of what you will find will talk about Rh factors, but here is a quote I took from another article (I don't think I can give links yet...but I'll try... http://www.med.unc.edu/obgyn/direct/rh.htm):

"Red Cell Antibodies Other than Anti-D
Red cell alloimmunization secondary to non-RhD antibodies continues to be a
problem since prophylactic immune globulin is not available to prevent these
cases. Although the RhD antigen causes more than 98% of all cases of
hemolytic disease of the newborn, more than 43 other red cell antigens have
been implicated. Especially problematic are the Kell (K1), c, Duffy (Fya), and Kidd
(Jka and Jk b) antigens. A recent study from a tertiary referral center in New
York found 550 cases of antibodies associated with hemolytic disease of the
newborn in 37,506 blood samples taken from women of reproductive age
(1.1% incidence). Anti-D occurred in 25% of the samples, anti-Kell in 28%,
anti-c in 7%, anti-Duffy in 7%, anti-Kidd in 2%, anti-E in 18%, anti-C in 6%,
anti-MNS in 6%, and anti-Lutheran in 2%."

I hope this isn't scaring you! The major effect of Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn is jaundice which is VERY treatable! The baby will be closely monitored in the hospital and by his/her pediatrician and may have to have heel sticks done daily to check bili levels. He/she may need a bili-light if the levels don't go down on their own.

I will say a little prayer for your SIL and her baby! I hope this helps!

 

[belle&beast]

My best friend had this when her daughter was born. When my friend's daughter was born, she was severely jaundiced- stayed a day longer in the hospital under the lights. Breastfeeding was difficult because she needed to be under the lights as much as possible to avoid the blood transfusions, and they needed to know how much she was taking in. Luckily, she came home on a billi-blanket and stayed on it for at least a week, had lots of blood tests, but she is a happy healthy 2 year old without any complications. The good thing is your sil knows what is happening ahead of time, my friend didn't know until after the baby was born. She can educate herself on what this means for her and her baby. Lots of luck to you and your family!