Abstract
Objective: We sought to determine the effect of bacteria on fluorescence polarization (FPOL) testing of amniotic fluid.
Methods: Fusobacterium necrophorum and Escherichia coli were inoculated at concentrations of 103 and 106/ml in amniotic-fluid specimens from 4 patients with no clinical or laboratory evidence of infection. The FPOL results were obtained at inoculation and again at 24 h of incubation. The results were compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Results: The FPOL results from inoculated specimens were all within 2% of the uninoculated controls. The specimens incubated with bacteria showed a < 1–19% variation when compared with the time-zero uninoculated controls. However, uninoculated controls incubated for 24 h exhibited a 2–12% variation when compared with the time-zero controls, suggesting that the variation present was not secondary to the bacterial co-incubation.
Conclusions: In vitro, neither bacterial inoculation nor prolonged co-incubation influences FPOL results beyond the effect of incubation alone. FPOL appears to be an appropriate test to assess fetal lung maturity in patients in whom intraamniotic infection is a concern.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (260.1 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Armer T. L., Duff P. Intraamniotic infection in patients with intact membranes and preterm labor. Obstet Gynecol Surv. 1991 Sep;46(9):589–593. doi: 10.1097/00006254-199109000-00002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ashwood E. R., Chamberlain B. V. Binding of fluorescent phosphatidylcholine in amniotic fluid. Obstet Gynecol. 1988 Mar;71(3 Pt 1):370–374. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hagen E., Link J. C., Arias F. A comparison of the accuracy of the TDx-FLM assay, lecithin-sphingomyelin ratio, and phosphatidylglycerol in the prediction of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. Obstet Gynecol. 1993 Dec;82(6):1004–1008. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Romero R., Sirtori M., Oyarzun E., Avila C., Mazor M., Callahan R., Sabo V., Athanassiadis A. P., Hobbins J. C. Infection and labor. V. Prevalence, microbiology, and clinical significance of intraamniotic infection in women with preterm labor and intact membranes. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1989 Sep;161(3):817–824. doi: 10.1016/0002-9378(89)90409-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ruch A. T., Lenke R. R., Ashwood E. R. Assessment of fetal lung maturity by fluorescence polarization in high-risk pregnancies. J Reprod Med. 1993 Feb;38(2):133–136. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Schwartz D. B., Engle M. J., Brown D. J., Farrell P. M. The stability of phospholipids in amniotic fluid. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1981 Oct 1;141(3):294–298. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9378(16)32635-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Shinitzky M., Goldfisher A., Bruck A., Goldman B., Stern E., Barkai G., Mashiach S., Serr D. M. A new method for assessment of fetal lung maturity. Br J Obstet Gynaecol. 1976 Nov;83(11):838–844. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-0528.1976.tb00757.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]