[Intrauterine growth in gestational diabetes]

Infants of diabetic tend to have more adipose tissue than normal infants at birth. This is thought to be caused by maternal hyperglycemia and fetal hyperinsulinism. Authors examined 160 newborn infants of mothers with gestational diabetes, to determine whether there is a relation between maternal blood-glucose concentrations and subcutaneous fat in the newborn. Mothers of newborns "large for age" present a mean fasting blood-glucose in third trimester greater than mothers of newborns "adequate for age" (p 0.05). Babies born to mothers who had a mean fasting blood-glucose above 90 mg/100 ml had more subcutaneous fat tissue than newborn infants of mothers with a mean fasting blood-glucose under 90 mg/ml (p less than 0.01). Maternal fasting blood-glucose and mean blood-glucose in the third trimester correlated significantly with neonatal weight, skin-fold thickness, K index and body mass index.