Rhonda Zwingerman

This guideline was written to update Canadian maternity care and reproductive healthcare providers on pre- and postconceptional reproductive carrier screening for women or couples who may be at risk of being carriers for autosomal recessive (AR), autosomal dominant (AD), or X-linked (XL) conditions, with risk of transmission to the fetus. Four previous SOGC- Canadian College of Medical Geneticists (CCMG) guidelines are updated and merged into the current document. All maternity care (most responsible health provider [MRHP]) and paediatric providers; maternity nursing; nurse practitioner; provincial maternity care administrator; medical student; and postgraduate resident year 1-7. Fertile, sexually active females and their fertile, sexually active male partners who are either planning a pregnancy or are pregnant (preferably in the first trimester of pregnancy, but any gestational age is acceptable). Women and their partners will be able to obtain appropriate genetic carrier screening...

The goals of this study were to determine the prevalence and relative frequencies of red blood cell antibodies in a Canadian prenatal population, and to evaluate the fetal and neonatal outcomes of affected pregnancies. We conducted a retrospective review of pregnancies that screened positive for red cell antibodies between 2006 and 2010. The following antibodies were included: anti-D, -C, -c, -E, -e, -Fya, -Fyb, -Jka, and-Jkb. Cases of anti-Kell as the sole antibody were excluded. Fetal and neonatal outcome data were then collected and analyzed. The population prevalence of a positive antibody screen was 0.36%. Anti-E was the most frequent antibody at 48.5%, followed by anti-c and anti-Jka. Anti-D made up 6.8% of cases, but had significantly higher titres and was responsible for the majority of severely affected fetuses. Sixteen cases in our series experienced severe adverse fetal or neonatal outcomes. All severe outcomes occurred in cases that had a maximum titre of ≥ 8. Despite th...