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Blood test can predict diabetes during pregnancy

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Blood test can predict diabetes during pregnancy

Friday January 20, 2006 (0007 PST)

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Related Links Adding fiber may help Diabetics Too Much Vitamin C Not Good for Diabetics` Hearts High Proportion of Extremely Premature Babies Develop Disabilities by Early Childhood Woman gives birth to triplets Magnesium May Lower Diabetes Risk ISLAMABAD: A blood test given during the first trimester of pregnancy may help doctors predict which women will develop diabetes later on, new research suggests.

Identifying these "at-risk" women early in pregnancy could give doctors more time to act and lead to better outcomes.

Diabetes during pregnancy, or gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), affects about 4% of women. GDM can make pregnancy difficult for the mother, but it can also cause problems for the unborn baby. For instance, babies of mothers with GDM are often abnormally large--a problem that makes c-section much more likely.

Currently, GDM is diagnosed in the third trimester with a blood sugar test that requires the patient to fast, study author Dr. Ravi Thadhani, from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told Reuters Health. Unfortunately, after GDM has been diagnosed, it’s really too late to do anything about it, he added.

If, however, "GDM could be predicted in the first trimester, then there might be time for interventions that would have a beneficial impact," he said.

In the new study, Thadhani’s team measured blood levels of protein called sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG).

"SHBG has been shown to be a good predictor of...diabetes" in people who aren’t pregnant. "So we decided to see if it was also useful during pregnancy," Thadhani explained. Unlike blood sugar testing, SHBG testing does not require fasting and can be performed during the first trimester, he added.

The study involved 44 pregnant women who developed GDM in the third trimester and 94 women who did not. SHBG levels were measured in blood samples that were collected from both groups during the first trimester.

Women who developed GDM had SHBG levels that were much lower than those of women who remained diabetes-free throughout pregnancy. Moreover, the SHBG level remained an important predictor of GDM even after considering other factors typically associated with diabetes.

So how good is the SHBG level at predicting diabetes during pregnancy? That remains to be determined, Thadhani said, adding that the purpose of the current study was simply to show an association between the two. Larger studies are in the works that will help answer this question, he added.