ABSTRACT
At this time, it would be too optimistic to recommend replacing amniocentesis with the cellular immunoassays. Although Nance et al. (26) obtained a better predictive value with the MMA than with amniotic fluid analysis, especially where negative results of the MMA were concerned (56), their observations were not confirmed in a larger series. Our previous observations suggested that amniocentesis could have been avoided in seven cases in which the results of the MMA were below 20% in spite of an antibody titer greater than 32 (27). However, when we performed the MMA in 29 women in parallel with 46 amniocenteses (unpublished observations), the predictive value of positive and negative MMA results was about 80% and the predictive value was only better than that of amniotic fluid analysis if negative MMA results were obtained.
