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Fluorimetric Techniques for the Assessment of Sperm Membranes
Published on: November 28, 2018
In vitro bacterial contamination of amniotic fluid: effects on fluorescence polarization lung maturity testing
R P Heine1, S Harding, P Emmett
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA.
Objective:
We sought to determine the effect of bacteria on fluorescence polarization (FPOL) testing of amniotic fluid.
Methods:
Fusobacterium necrophorum and Escherichia coli were inoculated at concentrations of 10(3) and 10(6)/ml in amniotic-fluid specimens from 4 patients with no clinical or laboratory evidence of infection. The FPOL results were obtained at inoculation and again at 24 h of incubation. The results were compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Results:
The FPOL results from inoculated specimens were all within 2% of the uninoculated controls. The specimens incubated with bacteria showed a < 1-19% variation when compared with the time-zero uninoculated controls. However, uninoculated controls incubated for 24 h exhibited a 2-12% variation when compared with the time-zero controls, suggesting that the variation present was not secondary to the bacterial co-incubation.
Conclusions:
In vitro, neither bacterial inoculation nor prolonged co-incubation influences FPOL results beyond the effect of incubation alone. FPOL appears to be an appropriate test to assess fetal lung maturity in patients in whom intraamniotic infection is a concern.
