PEDIATRICS Vol. 65 No. 2 February 1980, pp. 362-363
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Amniotic Fluid Microviscosity and Middle Ear Effusion

Burton F. Jaffe MD1

1 Chestnut Hill Medical Center, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

As an otologist interested in newborn ear disease, I was fascinated by the article in Pediatrics 63:213, 1979, entitled "Amniotic Fluid Microviscosity Determined by Fluorescence Polarization: Methodology and Relation to Gestational Age." It documented the decreasing viscosity of amniotic fluid as the fetus approached term delivery.

My experience with middle ear effusions in infants leads me to go one step further than the authors' presentation. I would like to suggest that in premature infants persistent middle ear fluid may very well be initiated by the higher viscosity of amniotic fluid. The study that leads me to this conclusion was conducted in 1967 by Jaffe et al.1