AIM AND OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy and risk of
developing gestational diabetes mellitus.
To identify the other risk factors for developing gestational diabetes mellitus. SUMMARY: In our present study we investigated the association between thyroid dysfunction and
increased risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus and assessed the other risk factors
for developing gestational diabetes mellitus.
We found that, incidence of GDM is high in overt hypothyroid groups when compared
with other groups.
Oral glucose tolerant test (OGTT) mean values of GDM patients were significantly
high in overt hypothyroid patients when compared with Euthyroid patients.
Interesting finding was that, overt hypothyroid patients with GDM had significantly
high mean serum TSH values in their early pregnancy when compared to overt
hypothyroid patients without GDM thereby indicating the association between thyroid
dysfunction in pregnancy and gestational diabetes mellitus.
Incidence of GDM increased with increase in age, BMI, family history of diabetes,
history of GDM, history of thyroid but dint reach the statistical significance
Patients with history of PCOD and history of infertility had significantly higher
incidence of GDM. CONCLUSION:The present study can be concluded that, thyroid dysfunction especially overt hypothyroidism
is associated with increased risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus. History of PCOD
and history of infertility are the notable risk factors for developing GDM.
It is prudent to identify women with thyroid dysfunction at the earliest in order to detect
gestational diabetes mellitus with least delay and treat with vigilance. However, a long term
study covering a wide spectrum of patients is likely to provide a better knowledge in
understanding the relationship between thyroid dysfunction and increased risk of developing
gestational diabetes
