Gestational diabetes mellitus screening and outcomes

Abstract

Objective: To verify the usefulness of the World Health Organization criteria for the diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus in pregnantwomen and its effectiveness in the prevention of maternal and neonatal adverse results in women younger than 35 years without apparent riskfactors for gestational diabetes mellitus.Material and Methods: This is a retrospective study based on population involving 1360 pregnant women who delivered and who werefollowed-up in a university hospital in Istanbul. All women underwent the 75-g oral glucose tolerance test screening, usually in between the 24 th-28 th weeks of pregnancy. In all cases, the identification of gestational diabetes mellitus was determined in accordance with the World HealthOrganization criteria.Results: Approximately 28% of the pregnant women aged younger than 35 years with no risk factors for gestational diabetes mellitus werediagnosed with the oral glucose tolerance test in this study. In the gestational diabetes mellitus group, the primary cesarean section rate wasimportantly higher than that in the non-gestational diabetes mellitus group. Preterm delivery was also associated with gestational diabetesmellitus. The diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus was strongly associated with admittance to the neonatal intensive care unit. Neonatalrespiratory problems didn t showed any significant deviation between the groups. There was a moderate association between gestational dia -betes mellitus and metabolic complications.Conclusion: Pregnant women with no obvious risk factors were diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus using the World Health Organiza -tion criteria. The treatment of these women potentially reduced their risk of adverse maternal and neonatal hyperglycemia-related events, suchas cesarean section, polyhydramnios, preterm delivery, admission to neonatal intensive care unit, large for gestational age, and higher neonatal