The rate of entrance of amniotic fluid into the pulmonary alveoli during fetal respiration

Abstract

From the foregoing experiments, it is evident that ink-stained amniotic fluid promptly enters the pulmonary alveoli of breathing fetuses but is not found in lungs of apneic ones. In the brief period of a minute of intrauterine respiratory activity, there is a striking flow into the pulmonary alveoli of the fluid in which the fetus is immersed.The presence of amniotic fluid in the lungs and its tidal flow during normal fetal life afford a basis for tracing the origin of damage to the future air passages.In so far as there is obscurity regarding the mechanism whereby extensive injury of the lungs occurs before birth, even resulting in intrauterine death associated with pneumonia, it is apparent that the present findings provide a new link in the chain of evidence, by which intrauterine pneumonia is connected with abnormality of the amniotic fluid.