Nutrient Levels in Amniotic Fluid from Women with Normal and Neural Tube Defect Pregnancies

The outcome in infants without fetal neural tube defect born to mothers with elevated maternal serum α-fetoprotein was studied. Elevated maternal serum α-fetoprotein with normal amniotic fluid α-fetoprotein was found to be associated with an increased incidence of intrauterine growth retardation and nonneural tube congenital anomalies. There was no increased incidence of developmental disabilities in infants born to mothers with elevated maternal serum α-fetoprotein. It is speculated that adverse events occurring early in gestation may simultaneously result in congenital anomalies and subsequently elevated maternal serum α-fetoprotein, perhaps through disruption of the normal placental barrier between the fetal and maternal circulations.

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Implementation of a screening program for diagnosing open neural tube defects: selection, evaluation, and utilization of alpha-fetoprotein methodology.

Clinical Chemistry ◽

10.1093/clinchem/32.10.1812 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 32 (10) ◽

pp. 1812-1817 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

R L Christensen ◽

M R Rea ◽

G Kessler ◽

J P Crane ◽

R Valdes

Keyword(s):

Amniotic Fluid ◽

Neural Tube ◽

Neural Tube Defect ◽

Gestational Age ◽

Screening Program ◽

Maternal Serum ◽

Alpha Fetoprotein ◽

Standard Curve ◽

Analytical Recovery ◽

Commercial Kit

Abstract We evaluated and compared three different commercial kit immunoassays for alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) before we implemented our neural tube defect screening program. Each kit can be used with either serum or amniotic fluid. Analytical recovery ranges for AFP reference sera within each kit's standard curve limits (in kilo-int. units/L) were 97-108% (7.5-180) for the Kallestad kit, 77-101% (21.8-436) for Amersham, and 92-100% (0-177) for Hybritech. CVs, within each manufacturer's standard-curve limits, for combined intra-assay (amniotic fluid pools) and inter-assay (kit serum controls) averaged 3.6-7.3% (Kallestad), 2.4-9.3% (Amersham (y) kit results showed a correlation of r = 0.97, y = 1.05x + 5.5 kilo-int. units per liter of maternal serum (n = 66; range, 2.0-98.5). Gestational age did not influence these assay correlations. The Kallestad AFP assay demonstrated a maternal serum positivity rate of 2.9% at greater than or equal to 2.5 (n = 655) and 8.9% at less than 0.5 (n = 423) multiples of the median. All kits performed well analytically.

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Brain tissue aspiration neural tube defect

Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria ◽

10.1590/s0004-282x2005000400011 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 63 (3a) ◽

pp. 614-617 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Luiz Cesar Peres ◽

Gustavo Henrique T. de Sales Barbosa

Keyword(s):

Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein ◽

Amniotic Fluid ◽

Brain Tissue ◽

Neural Tube ◽

Neural Tube Defect ◽

Acidic Protein ◽

Amniotic Band ◽

Histological Sections ◽

Occipital Encephalocele ◽

Heterotopic Tissue

The study aimed to find out how frequent is brain tissue aspiration and if brain tissue heterotopia could be found in the lung of human neural tube defect cases. Histological sections of each lobe of both lungs of 22 fetuses and newborn with neural tube defect were immunostained for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). There were 15 (68.2%) females and 7 (31.8%) males. Age ranged from 18 to 40 weeks of gestation (mean= 31.8). Ten (45.5%) were stillborn, the same newborn, and 2 (9.1%) were abortuses. Diagnosis were: craniorrhachischisis (9 cases, 40.9%), anencephaly (8 cases, 36,4%), ruptured occipital encephalocele and rachischisis (2 cases, 9.1% each), and early amniotic band disruption sequence (1 case, 4.5%). Only one case (4.5%) exhibited GFAP positive cells inside bronchioles and alveoli admixed to epithelial amniotic squames. No heterotopic tissue was observed in the lung interstitium. We concluded that aspiration of brain tissue from the amniotic fluid in neural tube defect cases may happen but it is infrequent and heterotopia was not observed.

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