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The influence of pre-eclampsia on fetal lung maturity
International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 05/04/2012
Stimac T et al. – Significantly lower lamellar body count (LBC) in pre–eclamptic pregnancies between 31 and 36weeks of gestation indicate delayed FLM associated with pre–eclampsia.
Methods- A prospective study was conducted to analyze 378 AF samples containing 5mL of AF from 306 singleton pregnancies at 26–39weeks.
- Stratified by gestational age groups, pregnancies were categorized as follows: pre–eclampsia (n=25); intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) (n=74); pre–eclampsia and IUGR (n=63); and control (n=144).
- Amniotic fluid LBC in each group was estimated and medians were compared for defined gestational age periods.
- Statistical analyses were performed via non–parametric tests.
- Between 31 and 33weeks, significantly lower median LBCs were found in the pre–eclampsia group than in the IUGR group (P=0.022) and in pregnancies with both entities (P=0.031).
- Between 34 and 36weeks, there were significantly lower median LBCs in the pre–eclampsia and the pre–eclampsia/IUGR groups than in the IUGR group (P=0.026 and P=0.004, respectively), as well as in the pre–eclampsia/IUGR group compared with the control group (P=0.04).
