Glucose tolerance in pregnancy: ethnic variation and influence of body habitus

Article Abstract:

Diabetes developing during pregnancy (gestational diabetes) is associated with a variety of complications of pregnancy. Infants born to mothers who are glucose intolerant are larger, more difficult to deliver and have some metabolic abnormalities. In addition, mothers experiencing gestational diabetes are at risk for diabetes mellitus later in life. Currently, pregnant women are usually screened for glucose intolerance sometime between their 26th and 32nd week of pregnancy. An abnormal result of a one-hour glucose challenge should be followed by a three-hour glucose tolerance test. The incidence of gestational diabetes varies among different ethnic and racial groups. Older women and overweight women are two high-risk groups. The ethnic differences in glucose tolerance in the absence of obesity and advanced age were studied. The study participants included a total of 3,366 women: 1,745 Hispanic, 797 Chinese, 509 black and 315 non-Hispanic white women. Chinese women were most intolerant to glucose after a one-hour 50-gram glucose challenge, with overall serum levels of glucose after the challenge averaging 134.8 mg/dL, followed by Hispanics (124.4), non-Hispanic whites (121.4), and Blacks (113). Glucose levels were higher among Chinese women even when women with gestational diabetes were eliminated from the analysis. Gestational diabetes was present in 7.3 percent of the Chinese women, 4.2 percent of the Hispanic women, 1.7 percent of the black women and 1.6 percent of the non-Hispanic white women. Although glucose intolerance after a three-hour glucose tolerance test was slightly affected by the mother's weight and age, differences in tolerance were still seen among the four groups. Since abnormal glucose tolerance is diagnosed by comparing values to normal standards set by the National Diabetes Data Group, it is suggested that additional thresholds be established for different ethnic groups. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Standards, Diagnosis, Glucose tolerance tests, Glucose tolerance test, Diabetes in pregnancy, Gestational diabetes

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Endometrial cancer: stage at diagnosis and associated factors in black and white patients

Article Abstract:

The reasons why black women are more likely to die of uterine cancer than white women do not appear to relate solely to socioeconomic factors. A total of 130 black women with uterine cancer residing in three cities between 1985 and 1987 were matched to a sample of 329 white women with uterine cancer by age and city of residence. Seventy-five percent of the black women had stage I or II disease, the mildest forms, compared with 91% of the white women. Conversely, over 11% of the black women had stage IV disease versus 3% of the white women. Black women tended to be poorer, less educated, and less likely to have a private physician or private insurance. However, black women were also more likely to have more aggressive types of cancer. When this was factored in, the excess risk of diagnosis with advanced disease among black women fell from three-and-one-quarter times the risk to twice the risk.

Endometrial cancer

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Race as a predictor of urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse

Article Abstract:

White women are more likely to have genuine stress incontinence whereas African-American women are more likely to have detrusor instability. This study of 183 African-American women and 132 white women confirms other studies that have discovered racial differences in patients with urinary incontinence.

Urinary incontinence

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