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Amniotic fluid alpha 2 ‐macroglobulin and the antenatal diagnosis of spina bifida and anencephaly
Author(s) -
Brock D. J. H.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
clinical genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.543
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1399-0004
pISSN - 0009-9163
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-0004.1975.tb01505.x
Subject(s) - anencephaly , amniotic fluid , spina bifida , neural tube , medicine , obstetrics , amniocentesis , prenatal diagnosis , pregnancy , alpha (finance) , fetus , pediatrics , embryo , surgery , biology , genetics , microbiology and biotechnology , construct validity , patient satisfaction
Alpha 2 ‐macroglobulin (AMG) concentrations have been measured in amniotic fluids from 33 pregnancies where the outcome was an infant with a neural tube defect. AMG ranged from 1.3 to 50 μg/ml in these samples, but was undetectable (< 1 μg/ml) in matched controls. Since the abnormal samples included four cases of spina bifida and eight cases of anencephaly before 22 weeks of pregnancy, measurement of AMG concentrations may be useful in the early antenatal diagnosis of neural tube defects. In some cases it gave clearer results than those obtained by measurement of amniotic fluid alphafetoprotein. However, care must be exercised to ensure that amniotic fluids are not contaminated by blood.