Abstract
The outcome of 21 pregnancies with elevated maternal serum α-fetoprotein levels associated with oligohydramnios was studied. Seven of the 21 pregnancies ended in spontaneous abortion or intrauterine fetal death before week 24 of pregnancy. Five patients experienced premature labor between 24 and 26 weeks of gestation; each fetus was either stillborn or died in the immediate neonatal period. Four patients were delivered of infants after 32 weeks of gestation; each infant was either stillborn or died in the immediate neonatal period. Four patients electively had their pregnancies terminated. One patient was delivered at term of a healthy, growth retarded male infant who on follow-up at age 17 months was developmentally normal. Only three cases were associated with a fetal defect. Patients should be counseled that, even in the absence of a demonstrable cause for diminished amniotic fluid on ultrasonography, raised maternal serum α-fetoprotein levels coupled with oligohydramnios seem to carry a poor prognosis.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 336-339 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | American journal of obstetrics and gynecology |
| Volume | 157 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1987 |
Funding
From the Section on Medical Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University. The Screening Program was funded by the North Carolina Depart-ment of Human Resources, Health Services Division, Contract No. 6210246. Received for publication October 13, 1986; accepted March 19, 1987. Reprint requests: Susanna N. Dyer, Neural Tube Defects Screening Program, Department of Pediatrics, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, 300 S. Hawthorne Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27103.
Keywords
- Maternal serum α-fetoprotein
- oligohydramnios
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Obstetrics and Gynecology
