Neutropenia and thrombocytopenia in infants with Rh hemolytic disease.

To assess the incidence and mechanisms of thrombocytopenia and neutropenia in neonates with Rh hemolytic disease, we studied 20 consecutive patients with this condition who were born at our hospital. All five patients with severe disease (hydrops) had neutropenia and thrombocytopenia before and after exchange transfusions. Two of six patients with moderately severe disease (not hydropic but requiring exchange transfusion) had neutropenia; all six had thrombocytopenia. Of nine patients with mild disease (not treated with exchange transfusions), two had neutropenia but none had thrombocytopenia. The mean platelet volume was low or normal (7.5 +/- 0.2 ft) in the patients with thrombocytopenia, and the neutropenia was not accompanied by a "left shift" (ratio of immature to total neutrophils 0.26 +/- 0.03, mean +/- SEM). In two severely affected patients, erythroid progenitor levels were elevated and their proliferative rates (tritiated thymidine suicide) were increased, whereas their granulocyte-macrophage progenitor levels and the proliferative rates of those progenitors were diminished. In a severely affected patient, the in vitro maturation of multipotent progenitors was altered, with production of a greater than normal proportion of normoblasts (p less than 0.01) but fewer neutrophils (p less than 0.02) and megakaryocytes (p less than 0.03). It appears that the marked increase in erythropoiesis in fetuses with Rh hemolytic disease can be accompanied by a down-modulation of neutrophil and platelet production.