Good blood glucose control is the goal of treatment of gestational diabetes. Home blood glucose monitoring is commonly used to assess the adequacy of blood glucose control. There is some evidence that testing postprandially rather than preprandially is associated with decreased risk of neonatal hypoglycemia, macrosomia and caesarean delivery1. However the optimal time following a meal to test blood glucose in order to achieve glycemic control in women with gestational diabetes is not known.
We randomized 167 women with gestational diabetes to test either 1 hour or 2 hours postprandially. The data from 2 women with twin pregnancies were not included in the analysis, 3 women delivered at other hospitals and 4 women did not continue with the study leaving 79 women in each group. Customised birthweight centiles and macrosomia rates and rates of neonatal hypoglycemia and caesarean delivery were compared between the groups. Results of data analysis will be presented.
1 de Veciana et al., Postprandial versus preprandial blood glucose monitoring in women with gestational diabetes requiring insulin therapy. NEJM, 1995, 333, 1237-41.