Measurement of Amniotic Fluid Volume in 2nd and 3rd Trimesters of Normal Pregnancies

Abstract

The important implication of obstetric care is the assessment of amniotic fluid volume. This assessment can prevent anomalies that are associated with oligohydramnios and polyhydramnios. Objective: To evaluate normal amniotic fluid volume in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters with the correlation of gestational age. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study and data were collected from a private health care setup in Gujrat, Pakistan.  After informed consent data were collected in four months. A sample size of 75 patients was calculated conveniently using a mean from previous related studies. The women with singleton gestation from 20 to 40 years of age group were included in this research. The data were entered and analyzed on SPSS version 20. Results: This study showed that 47(62.7%) of women were multigravida and 28(37.3%) were primigravida. The most frequent maternal age group was 26-30(38.7%) years and the gestational age group was 31 to 35(42.7%) weeks. At the gestational age of 21-25 weeks, the mean of AFI was 14.38 and the mean of SDP was 5.69, while at the age of 26-30 weeks the estimated mean of AFI was 12.12 and the mean of SDP was 5.11. The mean of AFI and SDP at the age of 31-35 weeks were calculated at 11.48 and 4.26 respectively. At the age of 36-40 weeks, the estimated mean of AFI and SDP were calculated 10.22 and 3.73 correspondingly. Conclusions: This study concluded that amniotic fluid volume measured by amniotic fluid index and the single deep pool was increased in the 2nd trimester from 21-25 weeks of gestation and then progressively reduced in the third trimester as the pregnancy advances.