INCIDENCE OF GESTATIONAL DIABETES AND PREGNANCY OUTCOME

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as glucose intolerance of variable degree with onset or first recognition during pregnancy. Infants of mothers with preexisting diabetes mellitus experience double the risk of serious injury at birth, triple the likelihood of cesarean delivery, and quadruple the incidence of newborn intensive care unit (NICU) admission. We estimated the incidence and outcome of gestational diabetes mellitus in pregnant women at our hospital. This is a prospective study carried out at “Queen Geraldine” maternity Hospital in Tirana, Albania. All women referred to the antenatal clinics at the hospital were enrolled in our study over a two year period of 2012- 2014 years and screened for GDM. Patients with known diabetes were excluded from the study. A total of 1137 women were enrolled in this study. Of these, 55 (4.8%) had GDM, with a incidence of (95% CI, 3.6 ? 6.2). Women with GD were significantly older (p <0.01) than normal women. The mean age was 30.09 (±5.2) years in women with GD and 26.7 (±4.8) years in normal women. The incidence of obesity, as defined by a BMI of more than 27, was 34% in the GDM group, compared with 12% in normal women (p<0.01). There were 36% of women with GDM who had a positive family history of diabetes, compared with 9% of women in the normal group (p <0.01). The obstetric outlook for pregnancy in women with pre-existing diabetes has potential to improve as rapid advances in diabetes management, fetal surveillance, and neonatal care emerge.