Amniotic fluid turbidity: a useful adjunct for assessing fetal pulmonary maturity status

A rapid, very simple technique for establishing fetal pulmonary maturity status is presented. Among 100 receiving amniocenteses, aspiration of turbid amniotic fluid that would not permit the reading of newsprint through it was associated with a lecithin/sphingomyelin (LS) ratio of greater than or equal to 2.0, or the presence of phosphatidyl glycerol (PG) in 97% (specificity 98%, positive predictive value 97%). The authors conclude that when turbid fluid is aspirated, delay until LS and PG results are known may not be necessary.