If the prenatal screening results show a high risk for pregnant women, many doctors will recommend them to undergo the "amniotic fluid extraction" test. At this time, pregnant women are very worried, do they need injections to extract amniotic fluid? How long does it usually take to have results after extracting amniotic fluid?
Amniotic fluid aspiration examination, as the name suggests, is the process of extracting amniotic fluid from the mother's body. When extracting amniotic fluid, ultrasound assistance is used to avoid the fetus and placenta, select an appropriate location, and then insert a probe into the uterus to extract a small amount of amniotic fluid for testing. Prenatal amniocentesis is a method of intrauterine diagnosis. Retrieve amniotic fluid from the mother's womb, examine fetal fetal fetal cells, and perform chromosomal karyotype analysis to determine if the fetus has genetic diseases. The implementation of this method can significantly reduce the birth rate of fetuses with chromosomal diseases and some metabolic genetic diseases.
The results of amniocentesis can generally be obtained 2-3 weeks after surgery. The reason why it takes so long is that there are very few fetal cells in the extracted amniotic fluid, and cell culture is needed to divide enough cells for chromosome karyotyping analysis. The cultivation process is relatively long.
In order to reduce the concerns of expectant mothers, some hospitals now also use the method of direct fluorescence in situ hybridization of interphase cells. This method does not require cell culture and is unlikely to fail. The results of chromosome abnormalities can be obtained in 2-3 days, but only for chromosomes 21, 13, and 18 and sex chromosomes. Therefore, it is suitable for non elderly patients at high risk of Down syndrome screening. It also depends on the schedule of the hospital.
Nowadays, the extraction of amniotic fluid is guided and monitored by ultrasound, so it will not harm the fetus during the procedure. In early and mid pregnancy, the amniotic fluid volume should be at least 250 milliliters or more. When doing amniocentesis, usually about 20 milliliters of amniotic fluid are extracted, which usually does not exceed 8% of the total amniotic fluid and will be replenished quickly. Therefore, expectant parents do not need to worry about affecting the healthy development of the fetus!
