Abo Blood Groups and Rh Iso-immunization.

Levine (1943, 1958a, b, 1959) observed that Rh isoimmunization of Rh-negative women was relatively much morecommon inwomen with ABO-compatible husbands than in women with ABO-incompatible husbands. This observation has implications with regard to the incidence of the ABO blood groups in affected families, and certain of these implications were first noted by Lucia and Hunt (1950a, b) in respect of mothers, by Donohue, Mullinger, Cook, and Snelling (1954) in respect of babies, and by Davidsohn, Stem, and Mackeviciute (1958) in respect of fathers. In what follows some of the other implications are noted, on the basis of aggregation of all known series, and an appendix gives what evidence exists as yet on the sex ratio of affected babies and their sensitizing sibs. With the exception of the series reported by Cohen (1960), which is approximately 8 per cent. Negro, all the available series are White. The relevance of this fact is dealt with briefly later.