Performance of a selective screening strategy for diagnosis of hyperglycaemia in pregnancy as defined by IADPSG/WHO criteria.

AIM: Our study evaluated the performance of a selective screening strategy for hyperglycaemia in pregnancy (HIP) based on the presence of risk factors (RFs; body mass index≥25kg/m2, age≥35years, family history of diabetes, personal history of HIP or macrosomic infant) to diagnose HIP and to predict HIP-related events.

METHODS: Women with no known diabetes who had undergone complete universal screening (early, before 22weeks of gestation and, if normal, in the second part of pregnancy) at our department (2012-2016) were selected, resulting in four groups of women according to the presence of HIP and/or RFs, with a predefined composite endpoint (preeclampsia or large-for-gestational-age infant or shoulder dystocia).

RESULTS: Included were 4518 women: 23.5% had HIP and 71.1% had at least one RF. The distribution among our four groups was: HIP-/RF- (n=1144); HIP-/RF+ (n=2313); HIP+/RF- (n=163); and HIP+/RF+ (n=898). HIP was more frequent when RFs were present rather than absent (33.1% vs 15.4%, respectively; P<0.001). Incidence of the composite endpoint differed significantly (P<0.0001) across groups [HIP-/RF- 6.3%; HIP-/RF+ 13.2%; HIP+/RF- 8.6%; and HIP+/RF+ 17.1% (HIP effect: P<0.05; RF effect: P<0.001; interaction HIP * RF: P=0.94)] and significantly increased with the number of RFs (no RF: 6.3%, 1 RF: 10.8%, 2 RFs: 14.7%, 3 RFs: 28.0%, 4-5 RFs: 25.0%; P<0.0001).

CONCLUSION: RFs are predictive of HIP, although 15.4% of women with HIP have no RFs. Also, irrespective of HIP status, RFs are predictive of HIP-related events, suggesting that overweight/obesity, the only modifiable RFs, could be targets of interventions to improve pregnancy prognosis.