We created this website to share our NAIT (Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia) story and information. We are blessed to be the parents of three healthy NAIT babies. Our first-born, Caleb, was born in January of 2000 with no physical signs of thrombocytopenia, but discovered by a blood count that this particular hospital performs (and most do not.) He was treated immediately with IVIG and his counts rebounded drammatically within 24 hours. We had never heard of NAIT, and soon found that little information was available regarding it. Since then more information has become available, but treatment approaches vary.
Genetic testing determined that we had 100% chance of recurrance for NAIT in future pregnancies due to a mismatch on the HPA-1 antigen. My wife is homozygous HPA-1b (PLA2PLA2) and I am homozygous HPA-1a (PLA1/PLA1). We also read that if untreated, NAIT was generally more severe in subsequent pregnancies since the mother's immune system has been sensitized to the father's platelet antigen(s).
After several consults we feel very fortunate that we were led to Dr. Alan Beer and Dr. Joanne Kwak-Kim of Rosalind Franklin University's (formerly Finch University) Chicago Medical School. Dr. Beer and Dr. Kwak-Kim's approach was drammatically different from what all others were promoting (and still is at time of writing this in early 2009.) It addressed all of our concerns and seemed to be much more proactive than reactive, and we felt errored more on the side of caution. Unlike other protocols, they begin treatment prior to when severe thrombocytopenia has been clearly documented and used a measured approach based on non-invasive test results that help them gauge how well the treatment is working.
Following Dr. Kwak-Kim's care, we were able to use much less IVIG in our pregnancies than if we followed the more "standard" protocols (even though we started much earlier, lower and less frequent dosages were needed since the early treatment helped prevent a large immune response from my wife) and achieved normal platelet counts in our two treated pregnancies with Grace and Jordan. Praise the Lord! We feel so blessed with these results and want to share them to give hope and inspiration to all other NAIT parents. While not everyone can achieve similar results, we are convinced that by starting treatment early and monitoring its effectiveness that NAIT can be more effectively controlled.