Pitfalls in Interpretation of Oral Glucose Tolerance Tests in the Newborn

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In the course of study of metabolic responses to oral glucose in eleven newborn infants of gestational diabetic mothers (IGDM), three infants had significantly higher blood glucose and plasma insulin values than those of the other eight. The only difference between the two groups was that, in the former, blood was obtained from an umbilical vein catheter and, in the latter, from a peripheral vein. In order to determine if the differences observed in insulin and glucose values were due to sampling sites, standard oral glucose tolerance tests were done with simultaneous sampling from both sources. Material and Methods Two-hour oral glucose tolerance tests (2 gm per kilogram) were done in five IGDM.