[Diabetic feto- and embryopathies]

The present article gives an analysis of available literature and the authors' own findings. Perinatal mortality of progeny of mothers suffering from diabetes mellitus may be caused both by embryopathy and antenatal fetopathy. The authors did not observe diabetic gameto- and blastopathies and no indications to their existance was found in literature, although some investigators admit the possibility of genetic implication in the pathology of progeny of parents with diabetes mellitus. In the progeny of mothers suffering from diabetes mellitus among congenital malformations which allow further intrauterine development and even extrauterine life, according to literature data most often there were observed malformations of the skeleton (37%), cardiovascular system malformations (24%) and those of the nervous system (14%). In all observations of the authors there were found congenital malformations of the bone system not infrequently in combination with other congenital defects. The main features of diabetic fetopathy appear in the last third of pregnancy, and therefore it may be considered as late antenatal fetopathy. The term "diabetic children" applied by some authors to children with diabetic fetopathy should be avoided since it may be erroneously understood as diabetes mellitus. In the majority of cases quite different mechanisms underlie these conditions: hypofunction of the islet apparatus of the pancreas in diabetes mellitus, and its hypofunction in diabetic fetopathy. Diagnosis of diabetic feto- and embryopathies is always based on both clinical and morphological data.