ROLE OF HEMOAGGLUTININS ANTI-A AND ANTI-B IN PATHOGENESIS OF JAUNDICE OF THE NEWBORN (ICTERUS NEONATORUM PRECOX)

Abstract

The work of Levine¹and others on the importance of the Rh factor in the genesis of erythroblastosis fetalis has stimulated general interest in the problem of jaundice of the newborn. All authors now accept the view that all forms of icterus in the newborn, physiologic as well as pathologic, are hemolytic in origin and that the liver does not participate at all in their causation. The bile excretion function of the liver of the newborn has recently been examined by Eastman,²who found that bilirubin injected intravenously in 25 newborn infants with and without icterus was equally well excreted in all; thus he proved that the liver is not a factor in the genesis of icterus of the newborn. The question of the cause of the hemolysis in the various forms of icterus of the newborn has been answered as far as erythroblastosis fetalis is concerned by