Newborns Of Non-diabetic Mothers Research Articles

Neonates of diabetic mothers: The starting point for developing novel therapeutic approaches to ischemic heart and brain?

Diabetes mellitus represents the most common medical condition causing complications during pregnancy. However, there is still some controversy surrounding complications. Maternal hyperglycemia leads to fetal hyperglycemia. Offspring of diabetic mothers compensate excess glucose concentrations by producing higher levels of insulin causing transient hyperinsulinemia. Infants of diabetic mothers are at risk for congenital cardiac malformations, of which 40% are with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. However, regardless of severity, cardiac hypertrophy is transient with echocardiographic resolution within the first months after birth. Neonates of diabetic mothers are more likely to suffer from macrosomia that predisposes the infant to birth asphyxia brain damage. However, there is no evidence for an increase in the incidence of brain injury from perinatal asphyxia in macrosomic babies of diabetic mothers in comparison to macrosomic newborns of non-diabetic mothers. We hypothesize that infants of diabetic mother may represent the starting point for developing novel approaches to the treatment and prevention of obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, AMI and stroke at every age.

Effectiveness of sucrose analgesia in newborns undergoing painful medical procedures.

Sucrose is widely used to manage procedural pain in term newborns despite a lack of evidence of its effectiveness for different procedures and infant populations. Our objectives were to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of sucrose in newborns undergoing various medical procedures within 2 days of birth. We performed a double-blind, randomized controlled trial. We included newborns (>or= 36 weeks gestation) of diabetic mothers and nondiabetic mothers. Each newborn received 2 mL of a 24%-sucrose or placebo solution before all procedures. We used the Premature Infant Pain Profile to assess pain during intramuscular injection of vitamin K, venipuncture for the newborn screening test and the first 3 heel lances for glucose monitoring (newborns of diabetic mothers only). Scores ranged from from 0 (no pain) to 18 (maximum pain). We included 240 newborns (120 from diabetic mothers, 120 from nondiabetic mothers). The overall mean pain score was lower among newborns who received sucrose than among those who received a placebo (mean difference -1.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] -2.0 to -0.6). We found that pain scores during intramuscular injection did not differ significantly between the sucrose and placebo groups for newborns of diabetic or nondiabetic mothers (newborns of nondiabetic mothers: mean difference -1.1, 95% CI -2.4 to 0.2; newborns of diabetic mothers: mean difference -1.0, 95% CI -2.4 to 0.4). During venipuncture, newborns who received sucrose had lower pain scores compared with those who received a placebo (newborns of nondiabetic mothers: mean difference -3.2, 95% CI -4.6 to -1.8; newborns of diabetic mothers: mean difference -2.4, 95% CI -3.8 to -1.0). Among newborns of diabetic mothers, there was no difference in pain during the first 3 heel lances or mean glucose levels between the sucrose and placebo groups (p = 0.94 and p = 0.29 respectively). We found a modest reduction of pain in newborns of both diabetic and nondiabetic mothers when sucrose was used for all medical procedures performed in the first 2 days after birth. However, when each procedure was analyzed separately, we found that the effectiveness of sucrose was limited to venipuncture for the newborn screening test. (http://Clinicaltrials.gov trial register no. NCT00213213.).

Antioxidant status and circulating lipids are altered in human gestational diabetes and macrosomia

Fetuses from mothers with gestational diabetes are at increased risk of developing neonatal macrosomia and oxidative stress. We investigated the modulation of antioxidant status and circulating lipids in gestational diabetic mothers and their macrosomic babies and in healthy age-matched pregnant women and their newborns. The serum antioxidant status was assessed by employing anti-radical resistance kit (KRL; Kirial International SA, Couternon, France) and determining levels of vitamin A, C, and E and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD). Circulating serum lipids were quantified, and lipid peroxidation was measured as the concentrations of serum thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS). As compared with non-diabetic mothers, gestational diabetic women exhibited decreased levels of vitamin E and enhanced concentrations of vitamin C without any changes in vitamin A. Vitamin A and C levels did not change in macrosomic babies except vitamin E whose levels were lower in these infants than in the newborns of non-diabetic mothers. Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and macrosomia were also associated with impaired SOD activities and enhanced TBARS levels. Globally, total serum antioxidant defense status in diabetic mothers and their macrosomic babies was diminished as compared with control subjects. Triglyceride and cholesterol concentrations did not differ significantly between gestational diabetic and control mothers; however, macrosomia was associated with enhanced plasma cholesterol and triglyceride levels. These results suggest that human GDM and macrosomia are associated with downregulation of antioxidant status, and macrosomic infants also exhibit altered lipid metabolism.

Anthropometric measurement of newborns of gestational diabetic mothers: does it indicate disproportionate fetal growth?

Anthropometric and skinfold measurements in 51 newborns of mothers with gestational diabetes were compared to reference ranges obtained from measurements of 501 newborns of nondiabetic mothers. In newborns of diabetic mothers, the means of fetal birth weight, biceps, subscapular, suprailiac skinfolds, and total fat index measurements (the sum of all measurements) were significantly greater than those of the nondiabetic group. While the means of fetal crown-heel length and head circumference did not significantly differ between the two groups, these findings suggest a disproportionate pattern of growth in fetuses of diabetic mothers, with increased tendency for deposition of subcutaneous fat. The studied population were then stratified into six categories according to birth weight percentiles. Within each category, the skinfold measurements in newborns of diabetic mothers were greater--though the difference was not statistically significant than that of nondiabetic mothers. It is possible, however, that in severe cases of maternal diabetes, the risks of complications, such as shoulder dystocia, increase with disproportionate deposition of subcutaneous fat. These risks appear greater than in fetuses of nondiabetic mothers at a comparable birthweight.

Congenital malformations in newborns of women with established and gestational diabetes in Washington State, 1984–91

We examined the relationship between diabetes in pregnancy and the development of congenital malformations, in a population-based retrospective study using birth certificate data for all liveborn children delivered from 1984 until 1991 in Washington State. Births to mothers with established and gestational diabetes numbered 1511 and 8869 respectively. For comparison we selected 8934 births to mothers without diabetes. The prevalence of congenital malformations in neonates was 7.2%, 2.8% and 2.1% among mothers with established diabetes, gestational diabetes, and without diabetes, respectively. Newborns of mothers with established diabetes were more likely to have a congenital malformation than newborns of non-diabetic mothers (prevalence odds ratio = 4.0; 95% confidence interval 3.1-5.1). In contrast, there was only a slightly higher prevalence of congenital malformations among newborns of mothers with gestational diabetes (prevalence odds ratio = 1.3; 95% CI 1.0-1.6). The association with maternal established diabetes was greater for neonates with multiple malformations (7.8; 95% CI 3.3-18.1) than for single malformations (2.9-95% CI 2.1-3.9). Four to seven fold associations were observed with skeletal, cleft lip/palate, neural tube and heart abnormalities. The association of established diabetes with congenital malformations was nearly twice as strong among female neonates (prevalence odds ratio = 5.4; 95% CI 3.7-8.0) than among male neonates (prevalence odds ratio = 3.1; 95% CI 2.2-4.5). No such variation was observed for associations with gestational diabetes. This study enlarges on previous work relating congenital anomalies to established diabetes and supports the possibility of a weak association with gestational diabetes.

Should blood glucose monitoring be done in overweight and/or giant infants of non-diabetic mothers?

Monitoring of serum glucose levels in 60 asymptomatic overweight (4.000-4.499 g) and giant (greater than 4.500 g) newborns of non-diabetic mothers during the first 72 hours of life did not reveal pathological values. The mean result of giant infants was lower than that of the group less than 4.500 g. In mothers of overweight infants diabetes mellitus should always be kept in mind. However, the diagnosis may be difficult particularly in its latent form due to metabolic alterations caused by pregnancy. For this reason it is necessary to monitor blood glucose levels for hypoglycemia in these newborns just as in infants of mothers having a manifest diabetes mellitus.