Effect of Previous Stillbirth on the Formation of Alloantibody among Women in Sokoto Tertiary Hospital

Aim: Stillbirth is one of the most common adverse pregnancy outcomes with numerous causes and effects. We intend to investigate the effect of previous stillbirth on the formation of alloantibodies among women requiring blood transfusion.

Study Design: One hundred and fifty three women with mean age of 29.97±9.724 years were recruited for the study which was conducted from August to October 2015.

Materials and Methods: The patients’ plasma samples were screened for the presence of clinically significant alloantibodies by Ortho Biovue system cassettes (AHG/Coombs) technique using the Lorne Laboratories of UK antibody screen cells and panel cells.

Results: The prevalence of previous stillbirth was found to be 25.5%, and was highest among reproductive age group (21 – 40 years). There was a statistically significant relationship between age groups and stillbirth (P = 0.011). The study revealed that the prevalence of alloantibodies was 16.3% among the women. We observed that 10 out of 25 (40%) of alloantibodies positive women were women with previous stillbirth and 10 out of 39 women with previous stillbirth formed alloantibodies. Although, 96.4% of the women were Rh D positive and 4(2.6%) were Rh D negative, only 1(0.7%) with Rh D negative had alloantibodies. The effect of the number of previous stillbirth on the formation of alloantibodies was found to have a statistical significant relationship (P = 0.021). The Odds Ratio of 1.949 was obtained for cohort alloantibodies positive of previous stillbirth.

Conclusion: We concluded from this study that the prevalence of alloantibodies among these women was high, and the number of stillbirths has a significant effect on the formation of alloantibodies. We therefore recommend for alloantibodies screening in women who had a history of stillbirth.