Diabetes In Pregnancy Increases Children’s Diabetes Risk

Researchers have identified a link between the occurrence of type 2 diabetes in adults and the presence of type 1 diabetes or pregnancy-related diabetes in their mothers.

Dr. Tine Dalsgaard Clausen of Copenhagen University Hospital and colleagues there and elsewhere tested 597 Danish adults for diabetes or conditions that might lead to diabetes.

The likelihood of having type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes was related to the mother’s diabetes status during pregnancy, the investigators report in the medical journal Diabetes Care.

Specifically, the rate of diabetes or pre-diabetes was 21 percent in subjects born to mothers who had pregnancy-related diabetes (termed gestational diabetes), 12 percent in those whose mothers had a genetic predisposition for diabetes, 11 percent when the mothers had type 1 diabetes, and 4 percent in subjects born to women with no history of gestational or other types of diabetes.

The findings support the idea that exposure to high blood sugar levels in the womb contributes to the development of type 2 diabetes in adulthood, the researchers conclude. Aiming for normal blood glucose levels in pregnant women "may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes in future generations."

Diabetes Care, February 2008.

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FACT: Diabetes Diagnostic Criteria May Be Off Target for Retinopathy: Retinopathy occurs at substantial rates even when glucose levels are below those that would trigger a diagnosis of pre-diabetes, according to a meta-analysis. More than 60% of retinopathy cases were among patients with fasting plasma glucose levels below 7.0 mmol/L (126 mg/dL).  In the Blue Mountains Eye Study, retinopathy prevalence was around 10% even at fasting plasma glucose concentrations below 5.6 mmol/L (100 mg/dL) — the current definition of normal — and increased further at concentrations beyond about 6.3 mmol/L (115 mg/dL), the researchers noted.  See This Weeks’ Item #1