Early prenatal diagnosis: standard cytogenetic analysis of coelomic cells obtained by coelocentesis

Coelomic fluid samples (n = 30) were obtained from normal pregnancies between 6.0 and 10.0 weeks and attempts to culture the coelomic cells were made. With one culture system, nine of ten samples were cultured and successful cytogenetic analysis was performed. There have been no previous reports of traditional cytogenetic analysis of coelomic cells and this might be the breakthrough for coelocentesis as a future method for early prenatal diagnosis.