Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Increase Even If Rise In Blood Sugar Level Is Not Severe, Study Says

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Also Included In: Diabetes;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 12 May 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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Increasing maternal blood sugar levels during pregnancy can cause issues such as high birthweight or a need for Caesarean sections, even if the woman's blood sugar levels are far below the risk of developing gestational diabetes, according to a study published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Wall Street Journal reports.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the 1999 Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes project that involved 23,000 women from nine countries. Most of the women had blood sugar levels that placed them below the risk of developing gestational diabetes. However, risk of high birthweights and need for c-sections for an infant increased if the pregnant woman's blood sugar increased, according to the study.

Donald Coustan, head of obstetrics and gynecology at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School, said that the authors of the study could not decide on a blood sugar level at which to recommend treatment, including insulin shots. Coustan said that the findings from the study are "about the future, not about the present," adding that they won't "affect clinical practice this week or this month." The researchers are scheduled to discuss their findings in June to decide if guidelines are needed for physicians who may need to treat expectant women with blood sugar levels below those of gestational diabetes, the Journal reports.

In a separate study published in the same issue of NEJM, researchers in New Zealand and Australia found that women who received treatment for gestational diabetes with insulin or a different drug, metformin, gave birth to infants with similar health outcomes. The study found women preferred metformin, in pill form, over insulin shots (Hechinger, Wall Street Journal, 5/8).

An abstract of the blood sugar study is available online. An abstract of the second gestational diabetes drugs study also is available online.

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