What is Amniocentesis?
Amniocentesis is a antenatal diagnostic procedure which can be used to specify the sexual urge as well as abnormalities and infection of the fetus . In amniocentesis , amnionic fluid is extracted from the amniotic sac of female and studied . This amniotic fluid is the fluid that surrounds your baby before nascence inside the amniotic sack and cushions your baby from jounce and injuries .
We all have heard the term “ water breakage ” that occur before birthing of the child which is actually leaking of pale yellow or clear fluid from the vagina that women have at the onset of labor . This “ water supply ” is nothing but amniotic fluid only which leaks at the meter of labor due to rupturing of tissue layer .
This amnionic fluid bear alive fetal cells as well as alpha - fetoproteins ( AFP ) . The fluid is extracted and studied to ascertain various problems in the fetus .
American obstetrician Fritz Friedrich Fuchs and Danish gastroenterologist Polv Riis were the first unity to execute the process of amnio in 1956 even though they do it without the utilisation of ultrasound .
Procedure of Amniocentesis
The procedure of amnio follows the following steps :
The chromosomes of the cells are studied under a microscope to find out any familial abnormality that may be present in the baby as well as to find the sex of the fetus .
Indications & Benefits of Amniocentesis
Amniocentesis can be used for the diagnosis of a change of hereditary disease and it can also be used as a discussion for surplus amnic fluid present in the sack . Some of the indications for the use of amniocentesis are kick in here :
Benefits of Amniocentesis in Diagnosing Genetic Abnormalities
Amniocentesis can be done to determine various genetic abnormalities . Some of them are :
Down syndromeis a genetic disorder make by an supererogatory written matter or third transcript of the chromosome 21 . multitude suffer from Down syndrome have some characteristic facial features and are mentally disable . This syndrome can be diagnosed before birth by the manipulation of amniocentesis .
Trisomy 18 is also get laid as Edwards syndrome . This is stimulate by an extra copy of chromosome 18 . Babies get from this syndrome are bear belittled with essence defect and intellectual disabilities . This can also be diagnose early by using amniocentesis .
Patau syndrome is another name of trisomy 13 in which there is an spare copy of the chromosome 13 . This causes people suffering from Patau syndrome to have multiple organ defects as well as abnormal growth . Amniocentesis can assist in diagnosing this transmissible disorder before parentage .
Fragile X syndromeis another one of the transmissible disorder that can be detected with the help of amniocentesis . In this syndrome , children suffer from balmy to moderate intellectual disability . Autismand hypersensitivity are also some of the symptoms .
Neural thermionic valve defects are some defects that rise when the brain and spinal cord openings which are formed during the developing of the babe ; do not close properly . Anencephaly and spina bifida are two of such nervous tube defects that can be detected by studying the levels of alpha - fetoproteins through the amniocentesis process .
Inherited metabolic disorder also called as inborn mistake of metabolic process ; are congenital upset of metabolism that are inherited from one generation to another and are triggered by the comportment of defect in the single genes . They can also be detected with the help of amnio .
Amniocentesis for Lung Maturity Testing
Amniocentesis can be good in the testing of lung matureness in the fetus . For this purpose , amniotic fluid is extracted and then screen using a form of tests to determine whether the lung are mature enough for birth . If they are not fledged enough , the baby runs the risk of exposure of suffering from infant respiratory distress syndrome .
Diagnosing Fetal Infection
One of the benefits of Amniocentesis is that it can be done to determine foetal infections . For this purpose , amniotic fluid is stained with Gram stain to show the presence of bacterium . It can also be tested for the turn of white blood cell and if there is any freakishness in their count , it can designate infection in the foetus . Amniocentesis can also detect a decreased glucose level .
Detect Rh-Incompatibility
If the child is suffer from Rh - incompatibility sensitising , amniocentesis can be used to correspond on the progression and well - being of the rise foetus even though doctors today favour to use Doppler ultrasonography instead of amnio . Rh - incompatibility is a condition that happens when the Rh - cistron of the mother differs from that of the babe . For example if the mother ’s origin is electronegative and the foetus is positivistic or vice versa . This condition may lead to some complications and may even induce miscarriage of the pregnancy .
Decompression of Polyhydramnios
Amniocentesis is also beneficial in draining redundant amniotic fluid from the uterus of the female parent to cure a precondition called polyhydramnios in which female parent accumulate excess amount of amniotic fluid .
Risks of Amniocentesis Procedure
There are some potential endangerment of amnio procedure . These let in :
Miscarriage of Pregnancy
A late study has shown the risk of stillbirth from amniocentesis to be around 0.06 % which mean 1 in 1600 cases . This is much less than the number indicated by earlier study because it excluded the cases in which parent prefer for abortion due to hereditary abnormalities . It only took the number where miscarriage occurred due to complications from amnio process , even though it is very difficult to estimate the number of miscarriages that fall out due to amniocentesis as a sealed number of miscarriages occur in second trimester anyway from complications that have nothing to do with amniocentesis .
Fetal Injury
There is also a jeopardy of foetal injury which is greatly increase if amniocentesis is performed before 14th week of the gestation . If amnio is performed in the eleventh to thirteenth week , it is termed as “ former amniocentesis ” and there is a greater risk of foetal injury in that .
Transmission of Diseases
Amniocentesis may transmit such diseases as hepatitis C andHIV / AIDSto the sister , if the mother is brook from them . Amniocentesis may also cause uterine infection in the female parent even though this happens very rarely .
Amniotic Fluid Leak
Amniocentesis process may result in amnic fluid leak . This is a rare occurrence and ordinarily only a minor amount of the unstable leaks through the vagina which stop in one week ’s time . In most cases , baby suffers no ill effects from this .
Rh-Sensitization
If the female parent has Rh - plus blood and the infant ’s roue is Rh - negative , the baby ’s parentage may enter the blood stream of the mother due to amniocentesis process . As a result , the mother break antibodies against Rh - positive blood which can cross the placenta and can make babe ’s blood line cell to get destroy .
Other Risks of Amniocentesis
Apart from the above mentioned risks , there is also the risk of preterm project and deliverance . Amniocentesis may cause an former parentage . It can also result to postural deformities , respiratory distress in which the baby see a difficulty in breathing and chorioamnionitis which is an redness of the fetal membranes .
The amniocentesis summons , besides having aesculapian peril , also has some social complications . Since the process can be used to get rid of “ disable babies ” , there is a endangerment that the process may be abuse to get rid of masses with perceived disabilities . There is also a peril of increase discrimination against citizenry with disabilities . So there is also pressure on parent to make a noetic and ethically correct decision regarding the life and well - being of their baby which can be quite distressing and emotionally tax .
How to Reduce the Risks of Amniocentesis?
There are many shipway in which you’re able to decoct some of the peril associate with amnio . Some of these things are mentioned here :
If you take the above mentioned precautions , it will increase your chances of take an accurate and relatively safer amniocentesis procedure . If the personnel are experient , it will also cut your chances of going through the function again due to the removal of poor amount of amnic fluid and it will also keep your baby from needle injuries etc .
What to Do After Amniocentesis Procedure?
After the subprogram of amniocentesis is done , you should follow the below mentioned road map for aftercare :
Accuracy of Amniocentesis Procedure
Amniocentesis routine has a gamy truth charge per unit of about 99.40 % . It may fail sometimes , if sufficient amount of amniotic fluid could not be garner . Sometimes even though adequate amount of amniotic fluid is collected , the cell fail to raise in the culture sensitive which can also cause the failure of the amniocentesis procedure .
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