The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Call to screen pregnant women for diabetes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 19, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Call to screen pregnant women for diabetes

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 18. The percentage of women suffering from diabetes during pregnancy is on the rise and screening of pregnant women for diabetes should become part of routine pre-natal care to reduce risks for the foetus, according to doctors who participated at the V.C. Mathew Roy Memorial Continuing Medical Education programme (CME) on diabetes, organised by the Department of Internal Medicine, Medical College, here today.

Some four to 10 per cent of pregnant women in the State had been found to suffer from gestational diabetes and in such a situation, identification of high-risk groups had become essential, it was pointed out.

Women with a family history of diabetes, obese women, women who have given birth to large babies or had had foetal complications in their previous deliveries, were especially at risk of getting gestational diabetes.

A.K. Das, director of Indian Institute of Diabetes, who spoke about the management of diabetes during pregnancy, said that for diagnosing diabetes during pregnancy, the blood sugar levels after fasting should be fixed at a lower scale. While for normal people, a blood sugar level above 126mg after eight-hour fasting is diagnosed as diabetes, for pregnant women, the cut-off level should be fixed at 95 mg, he suggested.

Every pregnant woman, during pre-natal check-up should be administered the oral glucose tolerance test. After administering about 50 gram of glucose orally, if the blood sugar level after two hours is above 130-140 mg, it should be diagnosed as diabetes, he said.

Gestational diabetes could result in several complications for the foetus and insulin treatment was only option. In addition, those women would have to be put on a special diet and exercise regimen as part of the diabetes management during pregnancy. About 60 per cent of the women with gestational diabetes go back to being normal after the pregnancy, however, about 20-30 per cent may develop diabetes after delivery, it was pointed out.

Experts also discussed the use of oral drugs to manage diabetes, management of diabetes in acute medical conditions and how altered serum lipid levels could have complications for diabetes patients and also thyroid disorders.

Those who spoke on the occasion included Mathew Thomas, Head of the Department of Medicine; B. Jayakumar, Professor of Medicine; K. Rajasekharan Nair, Consultant Neurologist; M.N. Rema, Principal, Medical College, among others.

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