Significant decrease in congenital malformations in newborn infants of an unselected population of diabetic women

Article Abstract:

Six to 13 percent of babies born of mothers with diabetes have congenital malformations, compared with one to three percent of the normal population. To determine whether improved management of diabetic pregnancies has altered the incidence of congenital malformations in this patient group, 1,858 infants born to diabetic mothers were assessed. In the period between 1967 and 1981 the rate of congenital malformations remained relatively constant in babies born in a Copenhagen hospital. However, from 1982 to 1986 a decrease in congenital malformations was observed (2.7 percent), compared with the rate from 1977 to 1981 (7.4 percent). There was a decreased prevalence of the more severe class of maternal diabetes in the later time period. The incidence of malformations in the normal population was 1.7 percent. The practice of terminating a pregnancy in women with the most severe type of diabetes due to congenital malformations is no longer justified; the decreased incidence of malformations in this group is supportive evidence. The high rate of planned pregnancies (75 percent) and the improved overall diabetic control in pregnant women may be responsible for the decrease in congenital malformations in babies born to mothers with insulin-dependent diabetes.

Abnormalities, Complications and side effects, Fetus

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Impaired insulin-stimulated nonoxidative glucose metabolism in glucose-tolerant women with previous gestational diabetes

Article Abstract:

Women who have previously had diabetes during pregnancy may not secrete as much insulin or be as sensitive to insulin as women who have not experienced gestational diabetes. Researchers analyzed the results of oral and intravenous glucose tolerance tests and of muscle biopsies from 12 women of normal weight who had experienced diabetes during previous pregnancies and compared the results to those of 11 normal-weight women who had not experienced gestational diabetes. Women who had had gestational diabetes had higher blood glucose levels after fasting and higher insulin levels than women in the control group. Both of these results indicate a prediabetic condition. Higher insulin levels than normal indicates decreased insulin sensitivity, perhaps due to reduced metabolism of glucose.

Measurement, Insulin resistance, Glucose metabolism

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Increase in maternal placental growth hormone during pregnancy and disappearance during parturition in normal and growth hormone-deficient pregnancies

Article Abstract:

A pregnant woman's blood level of placenta growth hormone increases during pregnancy, according to a study of 18 women. This probably reflects the growth of the placenta. One of the women was taking recombinant growth hormone to treat her growth hormone deficiency. Her blood level of placenta growth hormone increased just as in the healthy women.

Growth factors, Pregnancy, Placenta

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