Clinical Significance of Amniotie Fluid Cell Culture Failure

Lee, Soon Gon; Lee, Im soon; Lee, Kwon Hae; Lee, Hae Hyeog; Choi, Kyung Hoon; Kim, Dong Hee; Yang, Hee Kyung; Lee, Seul Kee

Abstract

The reports of all amniocentesis samples received in our cytogenetic laboratory from 1986 to 1998 were reviewed to identify cases in which culture failure of amniocytes occurred. Medical records were then reviewed for the prenatal ultrasonographic findings, karyotype when available, and clinical outcome. We investigated the clinical aspects associated with second trimester amniotic fluid cell culture failure. During the study period, 5,325 second trimester amniotic fluid samples were processed, of which 42(0.8%) failed to yield a result. Ninety-seven percent of the samples were obtained before 24 weeks' gestation, mainly because of advanced maternal age. Three percent of the samples were obtained after 24 weeks' gestation. Culture failure was more common in samples obtained after or at 24 weeks' gestation(11.8%) than in those obtained before 24 weeks(0.44%)(p<0.05, chi-square test). This difference was also observed when the results were analysed according to the cases with known normal or abnormal karyotypes, The frequency of culture failure did not differ significantly between the groups with normal and abnormal karyotypes. We conduded that amniotic fluid cell culture failure is more common in advanced pregnancy and is not associated with a higher incidence of chromosomal abnormalities.