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Correlation of Optical Density, Lecithin and Lecithin/Sphingomyelin Ratio in Amniotic Fluid
Author(s) -
Fonseca M. E.,
Forsbach G.,
Ganales E. S.,
Zárate A.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
international journal of gynecology and obstetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.895
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1879-3479
pISSN - 0020-7292
DOI - 10.1002/j.1879-3479.1980.tb00243.x
Subject(s) - lecithin , amniotic fluid , sphingomyelin , absorbance , meconium , medicine , optical density , chromatography , correlation coefficient , fetus , pregnancy , chemistry , cholesterol , ophthalmology , biology , statistics , mathematics , genetics
The correlation between optical density at 650 nm, lecithin and lecithin/sphingomyelin ratio was investigated in 94 amniotic fluid samples obtained from 90 patients between 28 and 40 weeks of pregnancy. All samples were processed immediately and those contaminated with blood or meconium were discarded. The correlation coefficient between lecithin and absorbance was high (0.926). The lecithin/sphingomyelin ratio also had a good correlation coefficient with the optical density (0.768). We conclude that absorbance at 650 nm is a reliable test for assessing fetal lung maturation.