Criteria for gestational diabetes: a cautionary tale.
The diagnosis of gestational diabetes was developed to predict neonatal outcome (particularly perinatal mortality, macrosomia and hypoglycaemia) and future maternal diabetes. A variety of criteria for this diagnosis have evolved over time, assessed predominantly among European women. We describe a Pacific Islands woman with multiple risk factors for future diabetes yet a borderline 100 g glucose tolerance test result, who delivered a stillborn macrosomic baby weighing 6.7 kg at 38 weeks' gestation. Six weeks postpartum, diabetes was diagnosed by 75 g oral glucose tolerance test. This case highlights the need for caution when interpreting the glucose tolerance test in pregnancy and suggests that closer fetal monitoring and involvement of the diabetes team may be necessary among women with a borderline glucose tolerance test in the presence of additional risk factors for future diabetes (eg obesity, ethnic group).
Simmons
D
D
Department of Medicine, Middlemore Hospital, Auckland.
Scott
D J
DJ
Conroy
C
C
Ansell
D
D
D000328:Adult; D016640:Diabetes, Gestational / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D005951:Glucose Tolerance Test; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors