[Is spectrophotometric analysis of the amniotic fluid a simple method for the determination of fetal pulmonary maturity? (author's transl)].

The samples of amniotic fluid from 55 transabdominal amniocenteses were examined with a simple spectrophotometric test for the predictive value on the risk of respiratory distress syndrome. There was a highly significant correlation between the lecithin content and the optical density of the amniotic fluid at 650 nm (r = 0.065 at p <0.001). No infant with an extinction threshold value of less than 0.15 had neonatal respiratory distress syndrome.