PubMed:452873 JSONTXT 10 Projects

Amniotic fluid phospholipid concentrations in pregnancies with pre-eclampsia and/or intrauterine growth-retardation of the fetus. Amniotic fluid lecithin/sphingomyelin (L/S) ratios were examined in 74 samples from 65 patients with preeclampsia. The median values were comparable to those obtained in a reference series up to 36 weeks of gestation whereas the median values after 37 weeks of gestation were found to be significantly smaller in the preeclamptic group (p less than 0.01). According to the present results a L/S ratio greater than or equal to 2 would in fact guarantee no development of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in the infants of preeclamptic mothers. On the contrary L/S ratios less than or equal to 1.6 may be of limited predictive value in these women since only 1/3 of the children developed RDS. When preeclampsia was combined with intrauterine growth-retardation of the fetus, RDS was found to be less apt to develop. In 21 samples of amniotic fluid from 13 women with idiopathic intrauterine growth-retardation of the fetus the L/S ratios were significantly below those in the reference series (p less than 0.05). No case of RDS was observed.