[Prenatal diagnosis of a case of metachromatic leucodystrophy (author's transl)].

Metachromatic leucodystrophy was diagnosed from cell-free amniotic fluid (marked deficiency of arylsulphatase A) in the 20th week of pregnancy of a woman whose two previous children also had the disease. The pregnancy was immediately terminated. Subsequent amniotic cell culture also revealed a very low arylsulphatase concentration corresponding to the values found in amniotic fluid. An about four-fold increase of metachromatic material was found in the formalin-fixed brain of the aborted fetus.