Can increased nuchal translucency in the first trimester of pregnancy predict gestational diabetes mellitus

Summary

The current study was designed to evaluate whether increased nuchal translucency can predict gestational diabetes mellitus. This was a prospective observational study. Among the pregnant women at 11–14 weeks of pregnancy who came to our prenatal unit for a first trimester screening test, 389 pregnant women whose nuchal translucency above 95th centile were selected as the study group and 386 age-matched pregnant women whose nuchal translucency were within the normal range were enrolled as a control group. First, subjects underwent a 50 g glucose screening test; if it was positive then a 100 g oral glucose tolerance test was performed. The main outcome measures were the prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus and impaired glucose tolerance and the number of macrosomic infants. Impaired glucose tolerance was more common in pregnant women whose nuchal translucency was above the 95th centile (p = 0.048). In addition, macrosomic infants were also more common in pregnant women with a fetal nuchal translucency above the 95th centile (p = 0.045). Macrosomia was more common in the study group with gestational diabetes mellitus (p = 0.046). In conclusion, increased nuchal translucency seems to be predictive for impaired glucose tolerance and macrosomia, which are associated with gestational diabetes mellitus.