Introduction: Decreased amniotic fluid volume below the normal range expected for gestational age is a challenging entity encountered by obstetricians. Normal of Amniotic Fluid Index (AFI) 8-20cm. quantitative estimation seen and measured ultrasonography during pregnancy. AFI sum deepest vertical pocket fluid, excluding fetal parts umbilical cord, in four quadrants between maternal midline vert...

BACKGROUND Intra-amniotic infection has long been recognized as the leading cause of preterm delivery. Microbial culture is the gold standard for the detection of intra-amniotic infection, but several days are required, and many bacterial species in the amniotic fluid are difficult to cultivate. METHODS We developed a novel nested-PCR-based assay for detecting Mycoplasma, Ureaplasma, other ba...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) concentrations in the early second-trimester amniotic fluid predict fetal growth at birth. HGF and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) concentrations in the early second-trimester amniotic fluid were measured in 12 pregnancies with small for gestational age (SGA) infants, 84 pregnancies with appropriate for gestat...

Cholesterol was extracted from amniotic fluid, saponified, converted to its trimethylsilyl derivative, and gas chromatographed, with cholesteryl acetate as the internal standard. The method is sufficiently accurate and precise for use with the range of concentrations of cholesterol found in amniotic fluid (5 to 48 mg/litre). Total cholesterol was measured in amniotic fluids collected at differe...

Somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (SLI) is widely distributed in tissues and biological fluids. To determine whether SLI is also present in amniotic fluid, samples obtained by amniocentesis from 30 normal and 27 abnormal pregnancies were studied by radioimmunoassay. Direct incubation of [(125)I-Tyr(1)]tetradecapeptide somatostatin (SRIF) with amniotic fluid resulted in 89% tracer degradation. ...

We hypothesized that prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) stimulates amniotic fluid transport across the amnion by upregulating vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in amnion cells and that amniotic PGE2 concentration correlates positively with intramembranous (IM) absorption rate in fetal sheep. The effects of PGE2 at a range of concentrations on VEGF 164 and caveolin-1 gene expressions wer...

Our objective was to test the hypothesis that fetal urine contains a substance(s) that regulates amniotic fluid volume by altering the rate of intramembranous absorption of amniotic fluid. In late gestation ovine fetuses, amniotic fluid volumes, urine, and lung liquid production rates, swallowed volumes and intramembranous volume and solute absorption rates were measured over 2-day periods unde...