ABSTRACT
The human coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected overall healthcare delivery, including prenatal, antenatal and postnatal care. Hyperglycemia in pregnancy (HIP) is the most common medical condition encountered during pregnancy. There is little guidance for primary care physicians for providing delivery of optimal perinatal care while minimizing the risk of COVID-19 infection in pregnant women. This review aims to describe pragmatic modifications in the screening, detection and management of HIP during the COVID- 19 pandemic. In this review, articles published up to June 2021 were searched on multiple databases, including PubMed, Medline, EMBASE and ScienceDirect. Direct online searches were conducted to identify national and international guidelines. Search criteria included terms to extract articles describing HIP with and/or without COVID-19 between 1st March 2020 and 15th June 2021. Fasting plasma glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and random plasma glucose could be alternative screening strategies for gestational diabetes mellitus screening (at 24-28 weeks of gestation), instead of the traditional 2 h oral glucose tolerance test. The use of telemedicine for the management of HIP is recommended. Hospital visits should be scheduled to coincide with obstetric and ultrasound visits. COVID-19 infected pregnant women with HIP need enhanced maternal and fetal vigilance, optimal diabetes care and psychological support in addition to supportive measures. This article presents pragmatic options and approaches for primary care physicians, diabetes care providers and obstetricians for GDM screening, diagnosis and management during the pandemic, to be used in conjunction with routine antenatal care.
ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Women with a history of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) are at increased risk of future diabetes and related Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) as are their offspring. "Transgenerational transmission occurs". Independent of genetic risk, offspring of hyperglycaemic pregnancies are at increased risk of early onset type 2 diabetes mellitus (Type 2 DM) and obesity. Differences exist in offspring risk of diabetes and obesity based on time and type of diabetes exposure in utero. There is a risk gradient, wherein type 2 DM exposure confers greater risk and reduces time to development of type 2 DM in the offspring compared with exposure to GDM and no diabetes exposure. These data suggest, glucose dose dependence in risk transmission. Given that the age of onset of prediabetes and type 2 DM is declining many reproductive age women may have undiagnosed diabetes or dysglycaemia when they become pregnant. This has great public health significance and it has become imperative that all pregnant women should be screened for hyperglycemia even if they have no symptoms. Ministry of Health, Government of India has developed the national guidelines for testing, diagnosis and management of hyperglycemia in pregnancy. These guidelines recommend early testing at booking, to be repeated again between 24-28 weeks if negative at first testing. The guideline also recommends that GDM can be diagnosed if the 2 hr PG is ≥140mg/dl after 75 gm of oral glucose administration without regard to the time of the last meal (i.e., fasting or non-fasting). This approach has also been endorsed by International Diabetes Federation (IDF), World Health Organization (WHO) and International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) for resource constrained settings.The aim should be to target new born baby's birth weight, appropriate for gestational age (2.5 to 3.5 kg) to prevent the offspring developing NCD in the future. For this to happen early diagnosis and tight maternal glucose control during pregnancy similar to glycaemic level in the normal pregnancy, (FPG between 80 and 90 mg, 2 hr. post prandial between 110 and 120 mg) is necessary.
