[Free fat in amniotic fluid - a criterion for prenatal assessment of foetal maturity (author's transl)].

Smears were made and stained with nile-blue sulphate following sedimentation of 235 amniotic fluid samples which had been obtained by amniocentesis. An assessment was made of the amount of free fat and of the various cell shapes involved. Free fat was found to occur in higher quantity in advanced pregnancy. These data were compared with postnatally estimated pregnancy age. The method proved to enable objective assessment of foetal maturity over the last weeks of pregnancy, and it seemed to be very useful in differentiating between hypotrophy and immaturity.