Gestational diabetes can be predicted by abdominal fat: study

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Women who have increased levels of abdominal fat in first trimester of pregnancy have a higher risk for gestational diabetes, according to a new study.

The details of the new study are published in the journal Diabetes Care. It revealed that high levels of abdominal fat in 24 to 28 weeks pregnant women were at risk of developing diabetes.

"This study highlights the potential to screen patients in their early stages of pregnancy, and use abdominal fat to predict the development of diabetes," said Leanne De Souza, lead author of the study and a PhD  candidate in obstetrics and gynecology at St. Michael's Hospital, via EurekAlert.

"By taking pictures of abdominal fat in early pregnancy using ultrasound during routine clinical visits, we could identify women with high levels of abdominal fat who may be at risk of developing gestational diabetes later on," she added.

De Souza and colleagues looked at almost 500 pregnant women who are 19 to 42 years old. To measure the visceral fat, subcutaneous fat and total fat in the abdominal area, the participants underwent ultrasound scans during their 11th to 14th-week term.

According to News-Medical, the researchers predicted gestational diabetes through both visceral and total abdominal fat. It was previously shown in other studies that visceral fat is a known predictor of diabetes. Additionally, women 20 to 50 percent of women who developed diabetes while pregnant were found to have Type 2 diabetes within five years after giving birth.

Diabetes screening in pregnant women was usually done during the second or third trimester with a glucose challenge test while accounting for body mass index, age, ethnicity, family history of diabetes. De Souza explains that the traditional way does not determine who is at risk for developing the disease.

"Up to 60 percent of women will start their pregnancy overweight, many women are having children at an older age, and most people have a family member with Type 2 diabetes, so traditional risk factors are starting to apply to more and more people, which prevent us from properly identifying those at a high risk," she explained, as reported by International Business Times.

She added that screening pregnant women for visceral and total fat during the first trimester could help determine if they are at risk for developing gestational diabetes. Prevention efforts including conscious healthy eating and better lifestyle choices could help in limiting weight gain.