[Intrauterine aspiration in man in the early fetal period].

A total of 220 futuses obtained as a result of spontaneous and artificial abortions, 9-28 weeks of pregnancy, were investigated. The studies showed that intrauterine aspiration could be performed already beginning with the 11th-12th week of pregnancy. Intrauterine aspiration was determined on the basis of microscopical detection in the bronchi and in alveolar ducts of particles of the amniotic fluid (amnional epithelium and maternal leucocytes from the 11th-12th week, erythrocytes--from the 13th-14th week, horny scales--from the 15th-16th week, meconium--from the 23rd-24th week) and dilatation of the bronchoalveolar lumens. The fetal membranes in inflammation (chorioamnionitis) served as a sourse of aspitating leucocytes. Intrauterine aspiration most often took place in case of harmful effects upon the fetus. The cells of the amnional epithelium and epidermis, being aspirated, produced no harmful effect upon the fetus; the meconium was aspirated in the last hours of the abortion and had no time to produce morphologically identified reaction; aspiration of maternal leucocytes, not infrequently in combination with infection of the lungs, caused a proliferative inflummatory reaction in the fetus in the form of an enlarged number of cells in the stroma of the lungs, rounding of their nuclei, increased number of segmento-nuclear leucocytes and the appearance of round-celled peribronchial infiltrations. A proliferative inflammatory reaction was noted in fetuses beginning with the 13th-14th week of the intrauterine development.