The use of ultrasound imaging to estimate amniotic fluid volume is commonly used as a diagnostic test for oligohydramnios, which is the presence of too little amniotic fluid around a baby during pregnancy, resulting in fetal malnutrition. However, methods of measuring amniotic fluid volume and diagnostic criteria are controversial.
That’s why three Ultrasound students at The Michener Institute of Education at UHN wrote a literature review called Amniotic Fluid Index Versus Single Deepest Pocket Techniques in Evaluation of Oligohydramnios, which was published in the December 2021 edition of the Canadian Journal of Medical Sonography (CJMS).
Lisa Bui, Sohny Gul and Iman Mahmoud began working on the review in July 2020.
“It started as a presentation for a summer course in our first year at Michener, but our instructor Sheena encouraged us to prepare it for publication with the CJMS,” says Iman. “We started writing the review in our second year and it took us almost a year to get it ready to be published.”
The review focuses on searching the literature for the most effective method for measuring amniotic fluid via ultrasound in pregnancies complicated by oligohydramnios. The team searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, randomized controlled trials, case series, observational studies and literature reviews.
“We were interested in this topic because oligohydramnios adversely affects pregnancies, having a negative impact on both the mother and baby,” says Lisa.
“We would like to highlight the big help we received from the Learning Resource Centre at Michener, who conducted workshops on using databases for searching literature, as well as providing full text articles from recent studies,” says Sohny.
