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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2016 Jun 29;215(4):408–412. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2016.06.037

TABLE 1.

International criteria for diagnosis of amniotic fluid embolism

United Kingdom:
Clinical diagnosis of AFE (acute hypotension or cardiac arrest, acute hypoxia, or coagulopathy in absence of any other potential explanation for signs
and symptoms observed) OR pathologic diagnosis of fetal squames or hair in lungs.14
Australia:
Clinical diagnosis of AFE (acute hypotension or cardiac arrest, acute hypoxia, or coagulopathy in absence of any other potential explanation for signs
and symptoms observed) OR pathologic/postmortem diagnosis (presence of fetal squames/debris in pulmonary circulation).15
Japan:

  1. Symptoms appeared during pregnancy or within 12 h of delivery;

  2. Intensive medical intervention was conducted to treat ≥1 of following symptoms/diseases: (a) cardiac arrest, (b) severe bleeding of unknown origin within 2 h of delivery (≥1500 mL), (c) DIC, or (d) respiratory failure; and

  3. If findings or symptoms obtained could not be explained by other diseases. Consumptive coagulopathy/DIC due to evident etiologies such as abnormal placentation, trauma during labor, and severe preeclampsia/eclampsia should be excluded.

Uterine AFE was considered to have occurred when fetal debris and amniotic fluid components were found in uterus in pathological examination of
cases of severe uterine hemorrhage after placental removal (eg, atonic bleeding) in absence of other obstetric hemorrhagic complications such as
abnormal placentation, trauma during labor and delivery, and severe preeclampsia/eclampsia.16

AFE, amniotic fluid embolism; DIC, disseminated intravascular coagulation.