AFE—the unknown
1. There is some serologic and histologic evidence that the disease
might be complement-mediated, but the data is too preliminary
to be conclusive.
2. Why fetal material in the maternal pulmonary circulation should be
specific for AFE in death but not in life remains unexplained.
Perhaps the greatest question of all about AFE, should it prove to
be a maternal immune response to the fetus, is not ‘‘Why is it so rare?’’
Rather, the better question is, ‘‘Why is it not much more common?’’