Tap test, shake test and phosphatidylglycerol in the assessment of fetal pulmonary maturity.

OBJECTIVE

No single test of amniotic fluid has yet been found completely reliable, easily performed and universally applicable in the prediction of fetal pulmonary maturity.

SETTING

Department of obstetrics and gynecology of a university hospital.

METHOD

The tap test and shake test were compared to the phosphatidylglycerol (PG) on amniotic fluid samples in 180 fetuses.

RESULTS

We found that the tap test results were correlated to the absence or presence of the respiratory distress syndrome in the newborn. When the tap test was evaluated at 5 min, the sensitivity (80.00%), specificity (91.03%) and predictive value for maturity (94.96%) and immaturity (68.29%) were comparable to those of the PG, which has a sensitivity of 82.85%, specificity of 92.41% and predictive value for maturity of 95.71% and immaturity of 72.50%.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that the tap test can be a valuable clinical procedure.