title: Advanced glycation end products, measured as skin autofluorescence, at diagnosis in gestational diabetes mellitus compared with normal pregnancy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are tissue proteins that accumulate with age and in diabetes mellitus (DM). AGEs can be measured by the AGE-Reader (DiagnOptics Technologies BV, Groningen, The Netherlands), which measures skin autofluorescence (SAF). SAF has been suggested as a measure to screen for undiagnosed DM or impaired glucose tolerance. SAF has never been investigated in gestational DM (GDM). Therefore we compared SAF at diagnosis in GDM patients with normal pregnancy. If SAF is elevated in GDM, future research could focus on the possible use of the AGE-Reader as a screening method for GDM.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this monocenter observational study SAF was measured in 60 GDM patients at diagnosis and 44 pregnant women without diabetes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  SAF did not differ between GDM at diagnosis (mean [SD], 1.74 [0.31] arbitrary units) and normal pregnancy (1.76 [0.32] arbitrary units). SAF was lower in white European patients than in patients with other ethnicity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This first study of tissue AGE accumulation in pregnancy shows no differences in SAF between women with GDM at diagnosis and normal pregnancy. This is most likely due to mild severity and short duration of hyperglycemia in GDM at diagnosis, but it does not exclude potential differences in SAF later in pregnancy. However, the fact that no differences are detected at diagnosis makes it unlikely that the AGE-Reader can be developed as a screening method for GDM in the future. Furthermore, we found that ethnicity should be taken into account when measuring SAF.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. w.l.greven@umcutrecht.nl
authors.forename: Wendela L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: de Ranitz-Greven
authors.forename: Dieuwke C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Bos
authors.forename: Wendy K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Poucki
authors.forename: Gerard H A
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Visser
authors.forename: Joline W J
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Beulens
authors.forename: Douwe H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Biesma
authors.forename: Harold W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: de Valk
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D016640:Diabetes, Gestational / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005951:Glucose Tolerance Test; D017127:Glycation End Products, Advanced / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D006943:Hyperglycemia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D008403:Mass Screening; D009426:Netherlands; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D017127:Glycation End Products, Advanced