Fetal Thrombocytopenia and Its Relation to Maternal Thrombocytopenia

Severe thrombocytopenia in an otherwise healthy neonate is an uncommon but important clinical finding 1 – 3 . Some infants with this condition have major bleeding, including intracranial hemorrhage, that may leave them with lifelong residual defects. Physicians have become highly aware of the risk of neonatal thrombocytopenia, and some have adopted an aggressive approach to treating the fetus with this potential problem. The issue is confounded by the fact that whereas severe thrombocytopenia is common among sick, premature infants (it occurs in as many as 15 percent of infants in a neonatal intensive care unit 4 , 5 ), the frequency of thrombocytopenia . . .