title: Correlation of subjective assessment of amniotic fluid with amniotic fluid index.
abstract: We assessed the correlation between abnormal amniotic fluid volumes as defined by the two techniques of (1) subjective evaluation and (2) the amniotic fluid index. Ultrasound evaluation of amniotic fluid volume was conducted on 420 pregnant women with known gestational age greater than twenty weeks but less than 42 weeks. Amniotic fluid was evaluated subjectively and placed into one of three categories: normal, oligohydramnios or polyhydramnios. After fetal biometry was performed, the amniotic fluid volume was assessed semi-quantitatively by the amniotic fluid index technique and assigned to similar categories. We analyzed the data with 2 x 2 contingency tables, using amniotic fluid index as the 'gold standard test'. Our study demonstrates that there was moderate agreement (kappa.5) between both amniotic fluid techniques in the identification of oligohydramnios. However, agreement between the techniques was poor for the identification of polyhydramnios (kappa.16).
authors.affiliation: University of British Columbia, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: B K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Wittmann
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dansereau
mesh_terms: D000653:Amniotic Fluid; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016104:Oligohydramnios / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006831:Polyhydramnios / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011262:Pregnancy Trimester, Second; D011263:Pregnancy Trimester, Third; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal