Fasting Blood Glucose and Birth Size in Asian and European Mothers

Summary

Summary

The value of a single determination of plasma glucose after an overnight fast as an indicator of intra-uterine growth was examined. Fasting plasma glucose was measured at 28 weeks in 241 European and 77 Asian mothers to investigate racial differences in the sensitivity and specificity of the test. In both racial groups mothers with the lower plasma results had smaller babies, but this relationship was insufficiently strong to be of predictive clinical value in the individual patient. The relationship with birth weight appeared to be mediated by maternal size in Europeans but was independent of maternal size in Asians. Although maternal weight was greater in the Europeans, the Asians were proportionally fatter with greater triceps skinfold thickness.