Polyhydramnios with normal U/S linked to adverse outcomes

(HealthDay)—Polyhydramnios with normal prenatal detailed ultrasound examination is associated with increased risk for adverse outcomes, including fetal malformations, genetic syndromes, neurologic disorders, and developmental delay, according to a study published online Jan. 11 in Pediatrics.

Enav Yefet, M.D., Ph.D., and Etty Daniel-Spiegel, M.D., from the Emek Medical Center in Afula, Israel, conducted a retrospective study involving 134 children aged 4 to 9 years with polyhydramnios and normal detailed ultrasound examination during pregnancy. The children were compared with 268 matched controls with normal amniotic fluid index and normal detailed ultrasound examination.

The researchers found that the risk for cesarean delivery and birth weight >90th percentile were increased in association with polyhydramnios. The increase in cesarean delivery was likely due to an increase in elective cesarean delivery due to macrosomia. There was a correlation for polyhydramnios with increased risk of congenital malformations (19 versus 10 percent; P = 0.016), with no significant increase in the rate of major malformations (8 versus 4 percent; P = 0.057). The polyhydramnios group more often had genetic syndromes (3.7 versus 0.75 percent; P = 0.043), as well as neurologic disorders and developmental delay (9.7 versus 3 percent; P = 0.004).

"Despite a normal detailed ultrasound examination, polyhydramnios is associated with increased rate of fetal malformations, genetic syndromes, neurologic disorders, and developmental delay, which may be diagnosed only after birth," the authors write.

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