Screening and diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus by IADPSG criteria

Background: GDM is a complex clinical entity and its screening, diagnosis, and management warrants attention. With this issue in mind, we aimed to study the prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus in the antenatal group of patients attending tertiary hospital in New Delhi and its association with maternal outcome.Methods: 300 pregnant patients were enrolled in the first trimester and RBS (random blood sugar) was done. Those who had RBS >200mg/dl were labelled as overt diabetes and excluded from the study. The patients who were screened negative in phase 1 of screening were subjected to the next phase of screening at 24-28 weeks of gestation with 2-hour 75g OGTT using IADPSG criteria. Those who were diagnosed as GDM were followed in the antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum period.Results: The prevalence of overt diabetes and GDM in the study population is 1.33% and 13.33%. The prevalence of gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia, chronic hypertension, polyhydramnios was 15%, 5%, 5%, 7.5% respectively. Normal and instrumental vaginal delivery was in 50 %, 5% patients respectively and 45 % had the caesarean section.Conclusions: The single step OGTT with lower threshold value cut-offs and single abnormal value for the diagnosis of GDM as advocated by IADPSG seem to be effective as it helps to screen and diagnose GDM at the same time as a single step procedure and thus more cost-effective.

A Comparative Evaluation of Techniques in Interscalene Brachial Plexus Block: Conventional blind, Nerve Stimulator Guided and Ultrasound Guided.

Background: This study was conducted to compare the three technique Conventional blind, Nerve stimulator guided and Ultrasound guided for Interscalene brachial plexus block in surgeries of upper limb. Methods: Total 60 patients were included in our study which were randomly allotted by closed envelope technique into either of the three groups namely Conventional blind (group CB), US-guided (group US) or NS-guided (group NS). The drug bupivacaine 0.5% (2 mg/kg) was used and diluted with normal saline to make a total volume of 30 ml. Results: Comparison between the Conventional blind (CB), Nerve Stimulator (NS) and Ultrasound guided (US) technique of interscalene brachial plexus block revealed that the block execution time, time of onset of sensory and motor block was significantly less in ultrasound group as compare to other groups. The mean duration of analgesia too, was significantly higher in both NS and US group (3 hr & 23 min ,3 hrs 30 min respectively), while it was 2 hr 47 min in CB group. The incidence of patchy effect (3 cases) and blockade failure requiring general anesthesia (4 cases) were significantly higher in CB group compared to NS group (2 cases each) and US group (1 case each). Conclusion: The success rate and effective quality of the block were more satisfactory with ultrasound technique than the nerve stimulator or conventional blind technique.