Prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus and its correlation with blood pressure in Manipuri women

OBJECTIVE: The aim and objective was to study the prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) by using National Diabetes Data Group (NDDG) and American Diabetes Association (ADA) (2004) criteria and the correlation of GDM with gestational blood pressure (BP) and maternal age. STUDY DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional study in which 300 pregnant women in 24-28 weeks of pregnancy who screened positive with 1-h glucose load ≥ 140 mg/dL underwent a diagnostic 3-h oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). BP was obtained by review of the medical records. RESULTS: Thirty-seven (12.33%) women were screened positive with 50 g glucose challenge test (GCT) (≥140 mg%) out of the 300 participants. With 100 g 3-h OGTT among these 37 women, none of them fulfilled the NDDG diagnostic criteria for GDM. However, on using the ADA (2004) criteria, three (8.1%) women were diagnosed to have GDM. All three of them had systolic BP between 120 and 139 mmHg; two of them had diastolic BP between 80 and 89 mmHg. Among 37 subjects with GCT > 140 mg%, majority were older than 26 years. CONCLUSION: Using the ADA (2004) guideline, 1% of the total study population had GDM. The BP of these patients fell within the prehypertensive range, thus suggesting an association between GDM and BP.