Amniotic fluid folate level in normal pregnancy.

Folic acid level was determined in 175 amniotic fluid samples obtained by diagnostic amniocentesis from normal Thai pregnant women aged from 18 to 37 years. The mean value + one standard deviation was found to be 3.01+1.88 ng/ml, ranged from 0.5 ng/ml to 7.9 ng/ml. There were no difference of folic acid in amniotic fluid samples in different groups of gestational ages from 33 to 40 weeks and 1 to 4 gravida. The amniotic fluid folic acid also showed no correlation with the birthweight of the fetus or the foam test. The mechanism of the transfer of folic acid from mother to fetus and the significance of folic acid in the amniotic fluid is discussed in this paper.