Details:

Alternative Title:
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth
Personal Author:
Knight, Marian ; Berg, Cynthia J. ; Brocklehurst, Peter ; Kramer, Michael ; Lewis, Gwyneth ; ... More +
Knight, Marian ; Berg, Cynthia J. ; Brocklehurst, Peter ; Kramer, Michael ; Lewis, Gwyneth ; Oats, Jeremy ; Roberts, Christine L ; Spong, Catherine ; Sullivan, Elizabeth ; van Roosmalen, Jos ; Zwart, Joost Less -
Description:
Background

Amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) is a rare but severe complication of pregnancy. A recent systematic review highlighted apparent differences in the incidence, with studies estimating the incidence of AFE to be more than three times higher in North America than Europe. The aim of this study was to examine population-based regional or national data from five high-resource countries in order to investigate incidence, risk factors and outcomes of AFE and to investigate whether any variation identified could be ascribed to methodological differences between the studies.

Methods

We reviewed available data sources on the incidence of AFE in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the USA. Where information was available, the risk factors and outcomes of AFE were examined.

Results

The reported incidence of AFE ranged from 1.9 cases per 100 000 maternities (UK) to 6.1 per 100 000 maternities (Australia). There was a clear distinction between rates estimated using different methodologies. The lowest estimated incidence rates were obtained through validated case identification (range 1.9-2.5 cases per 100 000 maternities); rates obtained from retrospective analysis of population discharge databases were significantly higher (range 5.5-6.1 per 100 000 admissions with delivery diagnosis). Older maternal age and induction of labour were consistently associated with AFE.

Conclusions

Recommendation 1: Comparisons of AFE incidence estimates should be restricted to studies using similar methodology. The recommended approaches would be either population-based database studies using additional criteria to exclude false positive cases, or tailored data collection using existing specific population-based systems.


Subject:
[+]
Cesarean Section
Embolism, Amniotic Fluid
Female
Fetal Membranes, Premature Rupture
Health Status
Humans
Incidence
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Complications
Pregnancy Outcome
Prenatal Care
Risk Factors
Women's Health

Source:
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2012; 12:7.
Document Type:
Journal Article
Place as Subject:
Australia ; Europe ; United States
Australia ; Europe ; United States Less -
Collection(s):
CDC Public Access
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:d56b4fb4f6885b3ff89084d5bba8af79dfb6dc3c8977d7282cdd6d4b7649a1b4
File Type:

Supporting Files

• 	1471-2393-12-7.nxml	txt
  	license.txt	txt

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