Clinical Assessment of Amniotic Fluid

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Appreciation of the importance of amniotic fluid volume as an indicator of fetal status is a relatively recent development.1 Before 1975, discussions of amniotic fluid volume in the obstetric literature were limited to observations of the quantity of fluid released after rupture of membranes. The occurrence of thick meconium and fetal distress in post dates pregnancy, for example, was attributed vaguely to "placental insufficiency." More recently, progressive improvements in ultrasonographic imaging have taken the technology of fetal and amniotic fluid assessment from the stage of subjective impression to the present state in which relatively sophisticated judgments of fetal condition can be based on reproducible measurements. In present practice, semiquantitative amniotic fluid volume assessment during routine ultrasound (US) examination and antepartum testing has become the standard of care. However, the complicated relationships imposed by the placenta and complexly folded fetus within an irregularly ovoid uterus have impeded the development of a precise method of calculating amniotic fluid volume ultrasonographically. And although both subjective and semiquantitative methods of estimating amniotic volume are in use, the best technique remains controversial. In this article, the author reviews the relative precision of the various volume estimation techniques and clinical situations in which amniotic fluid volume assessment is helpful.

This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit: