At short term, in women with gestational diabetes requiring drug treatment, glibenclamide is clearly inferior to both insulin and metformin, while metformin (plus insulin when required) performs slightly better than insulin. According to these results, glibenclamide should not be used for the treatment of women with gestational diabetes if insulin or metformin is available.Systematic review registration NCT01998113.

Despite a milder glycemic disturbance, women with type 2 DM had no better perinatal outcomes than those with type 1, indicating that type 2 DM in pregnancy is a serious condition.

Modified dietary interventions favorably influenced outcomes related to maternal glycemia and birth weight. This indicates that there is room for improvement in usual dietary advice for women with GDM.

Aims/hypothesis The aim of the study was to analyse the insulin requirements of women with type 1 diabetes mellitus throughout pregnancy. Methods We have examined the weekly mean blood glucose (mmol/l), insulin requirements (U kg −1 day −1 ) and total insulin requirements (U/day) in 65 women with type 1 diabetes mellitus and tight metabolic control since before pregnancy (HbA 1c ≤6.0%).Results Both insulin requirement and total insulin requirement displayed a peak in week 9, a nadir in week 16 and a second peak in week 37. For the change in insulin requirement (4.08% per week) and in total insulin requirement (5.19% per week), the sharpest slope was observed from week 16 to week 37. However, two changes of direction took place in the first 11 weeks and eight out of nine episodes of severe hypoglycaemia requiring treatment with glucagon or i.v. glucose took place in the first 16 weeks. Conclusions/interpretation Pregnant women with type 1 diabetes mellitus and tight metabolic control since before pregnancy displayed changes in insulin requirement and total insulin requirement with successive changes of direction. The sharpest slope was observed between 16 and 37 weeks, but insulin requirements were more unstable in the first 16 weeks. This information could help patients and physicians to react to changes in glycaemic pattern in a prompt and adequate way.

Aims/hypothesis. This study analysed the relationship between congenital malformations (CM) and severity of gestational diabetes mellitus. Methods. A cohort of 2060 infants of mothers with gestational diabetes was studied. Universal screening and 3 rd Workshop-Conference criteria were used to diagnose gestational diabetes. The severity of diabetes was assessed on the basis of previous hyperglycaemia, blood glucose values in diagnostic OGTT, area under the glucose curve, gestational age and HbA 1 c at diagnosis, insulin requirements during pregnancy, and OGTT after delivery. Potentially confounding variables (age, pre-pregnancy BMI, smoking) were considered. The relationship of potential predictors with CM was analysed with several multivariate logistic regression analyses.Results. The rate of CM was 6% for minor and 3.8% for major malformations (1.4% heart, 0.8% renal/urinary, 0.7% skeletal, 0.3% hypospadias, 0.2% central nervous system, 0.2% cleft lip/palate, 0.1% digestive tract, 0.3% other). In the final models, forward logistic regression analysis identified pre-pregnancy BMI as the predictor of CM (area under receiver operating characteristic curve 0.616); in the backward analysis additional predictors were 1-h blood glucose in diagnostic OGTT and gestational age at diagnosis (area under receiver operating characteristic curve 0.646). Both BMI and severity of gestational diabetes were predictors of heart and minor CM, whereas BMI predicted renal/urinary CM and severity of diabetes predicted skeletal CM. Conclusions/interpretation. In these infants of mothers with gestational diabetes, severity of diabetes and pre-pregnancy BMI were predictors of CM, in accordance with the well-documented pathogenic role of BMI (in the general population) and hyperglycaemia (in diabetic pregnancy). BMI was the main predictor of more prevalent CM. [Diabetologia (2004) 47:509-514]