Amniotic fluid phosphatidylglycerol: a predictor of fetal lung maturity using conventional one-dimensional thin-layer chromatography.

We present a retrospective comparative analysis of 209 amniotic fluid samples and the neonatal outcome. The presence of phosphatidylglycerol in 159 transabdominal amniotic fluid samples and the associated lung status indicated a 98% prediction rate for absence of respiratory distress syndrome with 1.8% false-positive results corrected to 0%. Twenty-nine vaginal pool samples were 72% predictive of outcome with false-positive results corrected to 14%. These cases were mild, and if a phosphatidylglycerol level of greater than 3% is used to indicate lung maturity, the corrected false-positive rate is 0%. False-negative results are also corrected and discussed. We believe that predicting neonatal respiratory distress syndrome by phosphatidylglycerol determination, using readily available conventional one-dimensional thin-layer chromatography, is clinically reliable and can aid in determining the maturity of the lung regardless of site of fluid collection.

Relationship of lesion size to survival in patients with stage IB squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix uteri treated by radiation therapy.

Forty-five patients with Stage IB squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix uteri were treated with radiation therapy alone. The five year actuarial survival rate of the 22 patients in group 1 in whom the tumor was less than 4 centimeters in diameter was 95 per cent, which was significantly higher than the 67 per cent survival rate in the 23 patients in group 2 with bulky lesions greater than or equal to 4 centimeters in diameter, p less than 0.05. These results of radiation therapy are consistent with surgical results recently reported and indicate that patients with bulky lesions, especially those tumors greater than or equal to 4 centimeters in size, comprise a high risk subset within the Stage IB classification. A new classification is proposed in which bulky lesions are designated Stage IC, advanced overt, so that such high risk patients might be identified and more efficacious treatment regimens might be developed.

Some marital-sexual concomitants of carcinoma of the cervix.

The responses of 50 cervical cancer patients to questions about marital and sexual adjustment are discussed. The subjects were predominantly poor, white women from rural areas or small towns. They had to travel 50 to 150 miles to a hospital where half were treated by radiotherapy and half by surgery. Their interview responses suggest five phases in attitudes and feelings from the time of the diagnosis until six months after treatment. Of 30 subjects who had a sex partner available and who completed the third of four interviews, 70% had either as much or more desire for coitus after treatment than before illness, and 57% had coitus either as frequently or more frequently after treatment than before illness.