Endocrine Abstracts

The conducted national screening of Bulgarian pregnant women showed a frequency of Hyperglycemia among them of 14.4%. It is known that a number of factors have a significant impact on this disorder. The aim: to assess risk factors for the development of Hyperglycemia in pregnant women in Bulgaria.

Material: We screened 547 pregnant women, mean age 30.49±5.12 years, divided into two groups: up to 24 gestational week –g.w. (n-386, 70.6%) and after 24 g.w. (n-161, 29.4%).

Methods: BMI before pregnancy and the current one at the time of the study were calculated. A two-hour, 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed. Plasma glucose was quantitatively determined using enzymatic reference method with hexokinase (Roche reagent) in the Central laboratory on the day of the blood sampling. The results were in mmol/l. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 13.0 for Windows.

Results: The screened pregnant women had Hyperglycemia in fasting state or during OGTT in 7.5% in group up to 24 g.w. vs 31% in group after 24 g.w, P<0.01. The age of the group of pregnant women with Hyperglycemia (n-79) vs the others with Normoglycemia (n-468) was significantly higher - 32.18±5.26 years v.s. 30.21±5.05 years, P<0.005. The women with a higher BMI before and during pregnancy are significantly at risk of developing glucose disorders during pregnancy, P<0.0001. Family history of diabetes occurred in 29.1% (n-23/79) of the pregnant women with Hyperglycemia, vs 13.5% (n-63/468) of those with Normoglycemia, P<0.001. There was a significant difference between the incidence of Hyperglycemia in pregnant women with previous GDM compared with those without - 3/79 (3.8%) vs 3/468 (0.6%), P<0.04.

Conclusion: Considering the main risk factors for Hyperglycemia during pregnancy, identified in the screening - advanced maternal age, obesity, family history of diabetes, and previous GDM, a verbal screening would be very helpful and would direct us to screen each pregnant woman with any of these risk factors.

References: 1. Borissovа A-M, Trifonova B, Ivanova L, Dakovska L, Mihailova E, Vukov M. (2020). Frequency and characteristics of thyroid dysfunction in pregnant women – screening of 547 women in Bulgaria. Medical & Clinical Research, Volume 5 | Issue 9 | 244-250.