Discussion
Amniotic fluid measurement is a test to evaluate fetal well-being. Detection of oligohydramnios (AFI technique) in antepartum period is significantly associated with an abnormal fetal heart rate monitoring and increased the rate of cesarean section for fetal distress(7).
In a previous meta-analysis study compared the use of AFI with SDP measurement in antepartum period for the assessment of fetal well-being showed that SDP was better than AFI(9). AFI increases the detection of oligohydramnios and the rate of induction of labor without improvement of poor fetal outcomes. Due to the dynamicity of the AFV, intrapartum measurement should represent the actual AFV than antepartum measurement.
This study was done during intrapartum period in active phase of labor which showed the actual AFV and the use of SDP technique to detect oligohydramnios. The result showed the incidence of oligohydramnios detected by SDP measurement was 38 cases (8.4%) and half of them showed poor fetal outcomes. We found that oligohydramnios which was detected by SDP technique had high specificity and negative predictive value to predict poor fetal outcomes. In subgroup analysis, there was a significant correlation of the oligohydramnios and poor fetal outcomes (increase
relative risk of delivery with meconium stained amniotic fliud and abnormal EFM). Therefore, intrapartum management of the patient who has SDP ≤ 2cm should be monitored closely to prevent poor fetal outcomes. (How? Give some example. By the way, the RR of SDP < 2 cm was not significant in low Apgar score and NICU admission that were the stronger poor fetal outcomes.) On the other hand, our results could not detect the association between oligohydramnios with NICU admission and low Apgar score. Our data recorded 3 cases admitted in NICU after delivery, 1 case of oligohydramnios and the other 2 cases of normal amniotic fluid. The two cases of normal amniotic fluid were diagnosed as a small heart defect and got medical treatment. TheindicationforadmissioninNICUofboth of them was for close monitoring the neonatal conditions. The other case of oligohydramios who admitted in NICU was term fetus with zero SDP and was delivered by caesarean section due to prolonged deceleration of fetal heart rate. After delivered, the neonate had to observed respiration at NICU. Finally, all of them could be discharged within 1 week with no serious complication. There was no neonate who delivered with low Apgar score in the oligohydramnios group in our study.
Our study had a few limitations. Firstly, we could not find the correlation between oligohydramnios with