Insulin secretion in patients with gestational diabetes: relationship with pregnancy outcome

The authors observed that there is wide variability in insulin response to an oral glucose tolerance test in women developing carbohydrate intolerance during pregnancy. This variability ranges from a reduction of pancreatic islet function to a normal or exaggerated secretory pattern of insulin. Moreover the results also suggest that exaggerated insulin secretion and/or high insulin resistance may play a role in the regulation of gestational blood pressure and that a higher glucose/insulin ratio may be positively related to birth weight. Clearly, further studies are needed to investigate the impact of this metabolic situation on the optimization of the clinical control of glucose metabolism and fetal homeostasis.