Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Jan 15, 2017; 8(1): 7-10
Published online Jan 15, 2017. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v8.i1.7
Amount of polyhydramnios attributable to diabetes may be less than previously reported
Lisa E Moore
Lisa E Moore, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, El Paso, TX 79905, United States
Author contributions: Moore LE is the sole author of this work.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the institutional review board at the University of New Mexico and assigned number 10-418.
Informed consent statement: This study was a retrospective chart review and was exempted from the consent requirement.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author has no conflicts of interest related to the manuscript.
Data sharing statement: No additional data available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Lisa E Moore, MD, MS, FACOG, ARDMS, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, 4801 Alberta Ave., El Paso, TX 79905, United States. lisa.e.moore@ttuhsc.edu
Telephone: +1-915-2155127 Fax: +1-915-5456946
Received: June 3, 2016
Peer-review started: June 6, 2016
First decision: July 5, 2016
Revised: October 1, 2016
Accepted: October 22, 2016
Article in press: October 24, 2016
Published online: January 15, 2017
Processing time: 217 Days and 8 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To evaluate the frequency and the quantity of polyhydramnios attributable to diabetes in pregnancy.

METHODS

The charts of patients with a four-quadrant amniotic fluid index (AFI) ≥ 20 cm and either a diagnosis of diabetes or a diabetes screening test during the index pregnancy were retrospectively reviewed. AFI was stratified into 5 categories and the frequency of diabetes was evaluated for each group. The frequency of polyhydramnios attributable to diabetes was compared to the frequency of polyhydramnios in the setting of fetal anomalies or no known cause.

RESULTS

One thousand five hundred and forty-five patients were included in the study. Eight point five percent (n = 131) had diabetes and no other cause for polyhydramnios. Eleven point two percent (173) had antenatally diagnosed anomalies. For all categories of AFI except the largest (> 40.9 cm) the most common cause of polyhydramnios was idiopathic. In patients with diabetes the AFI was most likely to be between 26 cm and 35.9 cm.

CONCLUSION

The rate of polyhydramnios in this study is 8.5%. Patients with diabetes most commonly have mild polyhydramnios between 26 and 35.9 cm of fluid on a four-quadrant AFI.

Keywords: Gestational diabetes; Amniotic fluid index; Diabetes in pregnancy; Polyhydramnios

Core tip: A finding of polyhydramnios has been considered an indicator to test the mother for the presence of diabetes. This is based on reports in the literature of a rate of polyhydramnios due to diabetes between 15% and 25%. This study identified a rate of polyhydramnios associated with diabetes of only 8.5%. This is half of the amount previously reported. Additionally, in patients with diabetes this study found that most had mild polyhydramnios between 26-35.9 cm of fluid on a four-quadrant amniotic fluid index.