Association of amniotic fluid index with neonatal outcomes at a tertiary level hospital in Pune, India

Dr.Avnika Kapoor; Dr.Vaishali Taralekar; Dr Savita Mehendale

Volume : VIII, Issue : II, February - 2018

Association of amniotic fluid index with neonatal outcomes at a tertiary level hospital in Pune, India

Dr. Avnika Kapoor, Dr. Vaishali Taralekar, Dr Savita Mehendale

Abstract :

Introduction: Amniotic fluid plays a vital role in the normal growth of the fetus. This study was done to evaluate amniotic fluid index (AFI) in low risk pregnancies between 36 and 40 weeks of gestation and to correlate AFI with neonatal outcome at birth.

Methodology: A cross–sectional study of all registered low risk women with expected delivery between 36 to 40 weeks in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Bharati Hospital from August 2015 to August 2017 was done. Two groups of patients were made: AFI less than 7 cm included patients who were treated but remained oligohydramnic and those with 7 cm or higher included treated cases of oligohydramnios. Neonatal outcomes were noted and comparisons were made between neonatal outcomes before and after treatment for high or low AFI.

Results: Mean age of the patients and AFI was was 24.9 ± 4.07 years and 10.55 ± 4.71 repectively. the mode of delivery and meconium staining was not significantly different between low or high AFI groups. Admission to NICU was significantly higher in babies born to mothers with AFI less than 7 (p<0.01). Similarly mean birth weight of babies was found to be significantly lower in group of mothers with AFI less than 7. AGPGAR at 1 and 5 minutes was not significantly different between the two groups.

Conclusions: Our results show that low AFI and more specifically persistence of low AFI can be used as an adjunct to other fetal surveillance methods to help in identification of infants at risk of poor perinatal outcome.