Yusuf Yildirim, Sivekar Tinar, Recai Soner Oner, Baris Kaya, Emrah Toz
Gestational diabetes mellitus in patients receiving long-term corticosteroid therapy during pregnancy
Aim: Little data exist on the impact of chronic low dose corticosteroid therapy during pregnancy on gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).
Method: We compared 25 pregnant women receiving long-term (>4 weeks) corticosteroid for newly diagnosed idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) (study group) and 108 normal pregnant women (control group) in this case-control study. Main outcome measures were 1-h, 50-g and 3-h, 100-g glucose tolerance tests (GTTs). Women in both groups were also screened with 75-g GTT 6 weeks after delivery.
Results: The mean duration of corticosteroid therapy was 9.8±4.9 (range 6–25) weeks. Compared with controls, study group patients had a greater prevalence of diagnosed GDM (24.0 vs. 2.8%, P=0.01). Of these patients, 83.3% were diagnosed with GDM at 16 weeks gestation. An impaired 75-g GTT was also more frequent in the study group (P=0.01).
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that long-term corticosteroid therapy may be associated with the development of diabetes in pregnant women and early GTT should be performed in pregnant women on corticosteroid therapy.
Journal of Perinatal Medicine, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 1619-3997
Volume: 34, 08/2006
Pages: 280 - 284
Show full article (external site)
Show all available items of this journal
Search
