Gestational diabetes has traditionally been screened for at around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
The pregnant woman drinks sugar water and her blood sugar level is measured two hours later.
If the blood sugar reading is too high, the test is usually repeated 2 weeks later.
There is now some controversy about whether screening should take place earlier in the pregnancy and what test is the best to use.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego Health System in San Diego, USA, compared early screening and different types of tests to determine the best way to identify women in need of treatment for diabetes that develops during pregnancy.
Their study, reported on in the medical journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice in April 2015, included 2652 pregnant women...
Mothers who were overweight or obese had a 13 percent higher risk of developing Gestational diabetes than those with normal weight.
It was therefore concluded early testing almost doubled the number of women diagnosed with Gestational diabetes.
When to test and which test(s) to use, remain difficult questions.
Although early testing with HbA1c and fasting blood sugar levels diagnosed more mothers earlier, their children averaged the same weight.
One reason for treating Gestational diabetes is to prevent infants from being born too large, but the ones treated relatively late while in the womb were about the same size as those treated earlier.
Another reason for diagnosis and treatment is to prevent the mother developing Type 2 diabetes after delivery.
Beginning treatment after 24 weeks is obviously less expensive than beginning earlier in the pregnancy, but protecting women from developing full-blown Type 2 diabetes after pregnancy is important too.
It would be interesting to compare how many women in each group developed Type 2 diabetes in the following five to ten years.
Let's hope for a follow up study.
Women can help to avoid the whole problem of developing Gestational diabetes by maintaining a normal weight before pregnancy and gaining only what is advised by their doctor or midwife.
The pregnant woman drinks sugar water and her blood sugar level is measured two hours later.
If the blood sugar reading is too high, the test is usually repeated 2 weeks later.
There is now some controversy about whether screening should take place earlier in the pregnancy and what test is the best to use.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego Health System in San Diego, USA, compared early screening and different types of tests to determine the best way to identify women in need of treatment for diabetes that develops during pregnancy.
Their study, reported on in the medical journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice in April 2015, included 2652 pregnant women...
- of those screened with the oral test at between 24 and 28 weeks, Gestational diabetes was diagnosed in 5.
3 percent. - among patients screened with HbA1c or fasting blood sugar levels at no more than 24 weeks of pregnancy, 9.
4 percent were diagnosed, showing both HbA1c and fasting blood sugar were more sensitive than the oral test.
Of the 9.
4 percent, the pregnant women who had both HbA1c and fasting blood sugar tests had the highest rate of diagnosis.
Mothers who were overweight or obese had a 13 percent higher risk of developing Gestational diabetes than those with normal weight.
It was therefore concluded early testing almost doubled the number of women diagnosed with Gestational diabetes.
When to test and which test(s) to use, remain difficult questions.
Although early testing with HbA1c and fasting blood sugar levels diagnosed more mothers earlier, their children averaged the same weight.
One reason for treating Gestational diabetes is to prevent infants from being born too large, but the ones treated relatively late while in the womb were about the same size as those treated earlier.
Another reason for diagnosis and treatment is to prevent the mother developing Type 2 diabetes after delivery.
Beginning treatment after 24 weeks is obviously less expensive than beginning earlier in the pregnancy, but protecting women from developing full-blown Type 2 diabetes after pregnancy is important too.
It would be interesting to compare how many women in each group developed Type 2 diabetes in the following five to ten years.
Let's hope for a follow up study.
Women can help to avoid the whole problem of developing Gestational diabetes by maintaining a normal weight before pregnancy and gaining only what is advised by their doctor or midwife.