Bimodal glucose distribution in Asian Indian pregnant women: Relevance in gestational diabetes mellitus diagnosis

AIMS: Presence of bimodality in plasma glucose distribution (BPG) and its relevance for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) diagnosis were studied in Asian Indian pregnant women. METHODS: Fasting (FPG) and two hour plasma glucose (2-h PG) values of oral glucose tolerance tests performed in 36,530 pregnant women for GDM screening (2006–16 period), were analyzed for BPG. A unimodal normal and a mixture of two normal distributions were fitted to log-transformed FPG and 2-h PG data. The mixture model was compared to unimodal model for BPG using likelihood ratio test (LRT) and the comparison was further verified by bootstrapping. The cut points of the two normal distribution curves in the mixture models of FPG and 2-h PG were noted. RESULTS: Fasting and 2-h PG distribution was bimodal in all pregnant women. The comparison of mixture and unimodal models using LRT revealed p value <0.001 in all age groups. The cut points for FPG and 2-h PG were 5.81 mmol/L (95% CI: 5.69–5.92) and 8.41 mmol/l (95% CI: 8.09–8.75) respectively. CONCLUSION: BPG is noted for both FPG and 2-hPG in Asian Indian pregnant women. The cutpoints of normal distribution curves are close to threshold values for FPG and 2-h PG proposed in NICE (National Institute for health and Care Excellence) and IADPSG (International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Group) GDM diagnostic criteria respectively. Further research on BPG in pregnant women of racial groups with high GDM prevalence, is likely to be of value in GDM diagnosis.