The impact of maternal diabetes on the future health and neurodevelopment of the offspring: a review of the evidence.

Maternal health during gestational period is undoubtedly critical in shaping optimal fetal development and future health of the offspring. Gestational diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder occurring in pregnancy with an alarming increasing incidence worldwide during recent years. Over the years, there is a growing body of evidence that uncontrolled maternal hyperglycaemia during pregnancy can potentially have detrimental effect on the neurodevelopment of the offspring. Both human and animal data have linked maternal diabetes with motor and cognitive impairment, as well as autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning abilities and psychiatric disorders. This review presents the available data from current literature investigating the relationship between maternal diabetes and offspring neurodevelopmental impairment. Moreover, possible mechanisms accounting for the detrimental effects of maternal diabetes on fetal brain like fetal neuroinflammation, iron deficiency, epigenetic alterations, disordered lipid metabolism and structural brain abnormalities are also highlighted. On the basis of the evidence demonstrated in the literature, it is mandatory that hyperglycaemia during pregnancy will be optimally controlled and the impact of maternal diabetes on offspring neurodevelopment will be more thoroughly investigated.

Ischaemia modified albumin in the diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes.

The early diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome remains problematic, despite recent improvements. Traditionally, the diagnosis of acute cardiac ischaemia relies on the combination of chest pain, electrocardiographic changes and elevation of serum markers. Troponins are currently the "gold standard" test for the detection of myocardial necrosis, but they are unsuitable for early diagnosis, as nearly 50% of patients may present to the emergency department with non-diagnostic concentrations. Ischaemia modified albumin increases within minutes after the onset of ischaemia, remains elevated for 6 to 12h, and returns to normal within 24h. Thus, it may be a valuable aid for the clinician enabling early detection of ischaemia before the development of myocardial necrosis. Its high sensitivity comes at the expense of a lower specificity because its increase may be due to ischaemia of other tissues such as gastrointestinal tissues or skeletal muscles tissues. This paper has focuses on the cardiology aspect of this biomarker, underlying its potential value in the emergency department.