FRIDAY, Aug. 23, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- It's more efficient to screen pregnant women for gestational diabetes at 16 weeks rather than the current practice of screening in the third trimester.
That what a new study in the August issue of the Journal of Reproductive Medicine suggests.
The earlier tests mean earlier detection and treatment of gestational diabetes in women at highest risk, possibly reducing complications to both mothers and babies, says study author Dr. Gerard Nahum, an associate clinical professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University Medical Center.
He and researchers from the University of Hawaii and California State University studied 255 pregnant women who came to a private obstetrics practice in Honolulu. The women were given a glucose screening test between 14 and 18 weeks of pregnancy.
In that initial screening, 14 of the women had blood plasma glucose levels higher than 135 milligrams of glucose per deciliter of blood (mg/dL). They were sent for more testing to confirm whether they had gestational diabetes.
The other 241 women were screened again at between 24 and 32 weeks of pregnancy. Any who had a blood plasma glucose level higher than 135 mg/dL were sent for more testing.
"Women who had a 16-week glucose screening test result of less than 110 mg/dL had a 99.4 percent chance of not developing gestational diabetes," Nahum says.
"None of the women who had a result of less than 104 mg/dL developed gestational diabetes. This gives us a cutoff point. Women who test in this range at 16 weeks are almost guaranteed not to develop gestational diabetes," he says.
More studies are needed to confirm that earlier screening for gestational diabetes can benefit mothers and their babies, Nahum says.
Gestational diabetes occurs in 2 percent to 7 percent of all pregnancies in the United States.
More Information
The National Institute of Child Health & Human Development has more information on gestational diabetes.
