Objectives: Fetal adrenals are one of the main organs responsible for maturation and survival. Extant literature is not clear about whether second trimester fetal adrenals are capable of synthesizing secreting aldosterone.
Methods: We have taken 20 adrenals from fetuses of intrauterine death cases. None of the fetuses had any external malformations and obstetric history was unremarkable. The organs were weighed and homogenized. The supernatant was used for aldosterone estimation by ELISA.
Results: We consistently detected aldosterone in all the cases including second trimester. However, we did not see any correlation between aldosterone concentration and gestational age. It is striking to note that there are wide variations in the tissue levels of aldosterone across different gestational ages and also same period.
Conclusions: Tissue aldosterone levels in second trimester can be possibly induced by stress preceding intrauterine deaths. It is possible that functional status of adrenal is different in intrauterine death cases as opposed to elective abortions in second trimester.
Keywords: adrenal glands; aldosterone; autopsy; fetus.
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