The study of role of HbA1c as a predictor of gestational diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Background: India is the diabetic capital of the world and gestational diabetes mellitus contributes to a significant number of cases. Gestational diabetes mellitus is a common medical complication of pregnancy and may lead to serious consequences. Because of these reasons, it was felt that if there was a biomarker for predicting carbohydrate intolerance in pregnancy, it could help in earlier intervention and mitigate the consequences related to it. Hence, for this purpose, the role of HbA1c was studied as a predictor of gestational diabetes mellitus.Methods: This was a cross sectional study. Five hundred antenatal cases were considered for this study. All antenatal patients before 18 weeks of gestation attending antenatal clinic for the first time were selected and these patients were subjected to HbA1c followed by diabetes in pregnancy study group of India (DIPSI) test between 24-28 weeks and the results were analyzed to find any correlation between the two.Results: The main objective of the present study was to find whether HbA1c can be used as a predictor of gestational diabetes mellitus. In this study out of 500 women screened, 60 women turned out to have gestational diabetes mellitus. When comparing DIPSI positivity with various levels of HbA1c, it was found that maximum number of DIPSI positive patients (93.33%), had raised HbA1c levels.Conclusions: Maximum number of DIPSI positive cases had HbA1c level between 5.5 to 6 and this association was found to be statistically significant and a positive correlation was established between the two.