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Maternal Gestational Diabetes and Fetal Congenital Heart Disease: An Observational Study
| Lindsey E Hunter1 and Gurleen K Sharland2* | |
| 1Lindsey E Hunter, Specialist Registrar in Paediatric and Fetal Cardiology, UK | |
| 2Gurleen K Sharland, Consultant in Fetal Cardiology, Department of Congenital Heart Disease, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, London, UK | |
| Corresponding Author : | Gurleen Sharland Department of Congenital Heart Disease Evelina London Children’s Hospital Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7EH, UK Tel: 020 718 82308 Fax: 020 718 82307 E-mail: gurleen.sharland@gstt.nhs.uk |
| Received October 12, 2014; Accepted January 26, 2015; Published January 26, 2015 | |
| Citation: Hunter LE, Sharland GK (2015) Maternal Gestational Diabetes and Fetal Congenital Heart Disease: An Observational Study. J Preg Child Health 2:132. doi: 10.4172/2376-127X.1000132 | |
| Copyright: © 2015 Hunter LE, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
Background: Maternal type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) is a recognised risk factor for the development of fetal congenital heart disease (CHD). However the risk of CHD in babies of women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is less well known.
Objectives: The aim of this 10 year, retrospective, observational study was to compare the occurrence of congenital heart disease in these two referral groups and to evaluate whether detailed fetal echocardiography should be offered to women with GDM.
Results: During the study period 1401 women with type 1 DM were referred for fetal echocardiography and a fetal congenital heart defect was diagnosed in 44 cases (3.1%). In the GDM cohort 543 women were referred for screening and 15 cases (2.76%) of fetal CHD were detected.
Conclusions: Based on our data we consider women with GDM to be at an increased risk of having a baby with CHD. This risk might be due to a combination of hyperglycaemia, insulin resistance, an elevated BMI and more importantly, undiagnosed pre-gestational diabetes. Until more detailed data from larger studies is available, we will continue to accept these women as referrals for detailed fetal echocardiography.
