CONCENTRATIONS OF PROSTAGLANDIN F2α IN AMNIOTIC FLUID AND PLASMA IN SPONTANEOUS AND INDUCED LABOURS

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary: Concentrations of prostaglandins Fα (PGF2α plus PGF1α) have been measured in terms of PGF2α equivalents by specific radioimmunossay in serial samples of amniotic fluid and peripheral plasma from five patients with spontaneous onset of labour, five induced by amniotomy followed by intravenous oxytocin and six by amniotomy followed by intravenous prostaglandin E2. The mean PGFα concentration in amniotic fluid at amniotomy in patients not in labour was 0.68±0.2 (S.D.) ng./ml. After three to four hours stimulation with oxytocin or PGE2, the concentration was 0.76±0.7 ng./ml. This value is significantly lower (p<0.05) than the concentration in the first amniotic fluid sample taken from patients in spontaneous labour (2.34±l.7) ng./ml., despite uterine activity being tocographically greater in the former patients. In patients labouring spontaneously a transient decline was noted in amniotic fluid PGFα from 2.5±l.6 at amniotomy to 0.79±0.6 ng./ml. in the subsequent sample. A rise in amniotic fluid PGFα concentrations was noted in all patients during the course of labour but the extent of the increase was variable reaching 0.8 to 30 ng./ml.; in four of six patients in whom amniotic fluid sampling was continued during the second stage a further rise in PGFα occurred.Peripheral plasma levels of PGFα did not increase during labour.