ANALYSTS OF CYSTIC HYGROMA, ASCITIC, AND PLEURAL FLUIDS BY CONVENTIONAL LYMPHOCYTE CULTURE AND FLUORESCENT IN-SITU HYBRIDIZATION

Serous fluids from cystic hygromas, pleural effusions, and ascites are an easily accessible and plentiful source of lymphocytes. The feasibi lity and reliability of using these as alternative sources to conventi onal amniotic fluid or fetal blood cultures have been studied here. In some cases of prenatal diagnosis, especially in pregnancies complicat ed by the presence of cystic hygromas and fetal hydrops, obtaining amn iotic fluid or fetal blood can be difficult due to obstruction by the cyst or oligohydramnios. A total of 14 cases with fetal hydrops detect ed ultrasonigraphically between 15 and 33 weeks of pregnancy over a pe riod of 1 year have been subjected to conventional amniotic fluid or f etal blood karyotyping, along with samples of fluids from cystic hygro mas, ascites or pleural effusions as obtained. Pleural fluids (n=4), c ystic hygroma fluids (n=5), and ascitic fluids (n=6) were obtained. Th e culture failure rate was low, 2/14. Karyotypically, two of the fluid s, both from cystic hygromas, were 45,X; the rest were normal. A rapid 1-day additional test of fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) was carried out on uncultured cells of the alternative fluids using probe s for the most commonly occurring aneuploidies, 13, 18, 21, X and Y, w ith good results. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.