Figure 3. Correlation between microbial burden and extracellular ASC in amniotic fluid.
Extracellular ASC concentration in relation to the cycle of quantification (Cq) of amniotic fluid samples. Categorization of amniotic fluid samples is based on the presence/absence of positive microbiological culture and/or positive bacterial 16S rRNA gene qPCR, and intra-amniotic inflammation (IL-6 concentrations > 2.6 ng/mL). The statistical result is from a Spearman’s rank-order correlation test. The regression line is indicated. N = 8–19 per group.