13/02/2024
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as carbohydrate intolerance resulting in hyperglycaemia and impaired glucose tolerance, with first onset or detection during pregnancy.
GDM increases the risk of complications for both mother and child during pregnancy, childbirth and beyond with increasing prevalence, estimated to affect 7% of all pregnancies.
Evidence suggests early detection and treatment improve outcomes, but this is hampered by disagreement regarding many aspects of its diagnosis. The diagnosis is based on maternity glucose concentrations measured by oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) at 24–28 weeks of gestation. However, there are still many women who are at serious risk for over- and under-diagnosis due to the uncertainty of the ‘healthy’ glucose threshold.
Furthermore, poorly controlled GDM leads to adverse maternal and infant outcomes. Therefore, the development of a reliable quantitate measure for early and accurate diagnosis together with person-specific control of the condition is of utter importance and comprises the goal of this research.
To achieve this goal, 25 women in each group of low- and high-risk of GDM development will be recruited, comprising 50 participants in total.
We will look at the timing and variations of blood glucose via continuous glucose monitoring and will employ advanced methods of dynamic modelling to analyse data collected throughout pregnancy and soon after giving birth. Specifically, we will investigate and quantify intra- and inter- person variability in glucose variations throughout gestation, assess how glucose variations change from the non-diabetic stage to well-developed GDM and back to normal non-diabetic condition and how they are different in the low- and high- risk GDM groups.
The 5-years study will be conducted at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire in collaboration with the School of Engineering of the University of Warwick.
