Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is a condition that your body cannot make enough insulin during your pregnancy. Doctors will recommend this test for all patients during 24-28 weeks. Doctors usually recommend that patients to take the GCT(Glucose challenge test) or OGTT(oral glucose tolerance test) to identify the patient's glucose level.

GCT test procedure:

1. First test will be the fasting sugar level blood test. After that need to drink a glucose solution (50g of glucose dissolved in water). After 1 hour duration again you have to take the sugar level blood test.

After 1 hour glucose:

The normal range for the GCT test is <7.8 mmol

GDM range is between 7.8 to 11 mmol

Diabetes>11 mmol

OGTT test procedure:

If your blood glucose is higher than 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L), the next step is the oral glucose tolerance test. This test will show if you have gestational diabetes. Most women (about 2 out of 3) who take this test do not have gestational diabetes

Abnormal blood values for a 3-hour 100-gram oral glucose tolerance test are:

· Fasting: greater than 95 mg/dL (5.3 mmol/L)

· 1 hour: greater than 180 mg/dL (10.0 mmol/L)

· 2 hours: greater than 155 mg/dL (8.6 mmol/L)

· 3 hours: greater than 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L)

Here I have taken a sample dataset and analyzed some of the biomarkers related to GDM

In this dataset, I have done some initial cleaning in Excel and took Tableau for further analysis. For finding the GDM patients I have taken 1H glucose test values, and OGTT test (1H,2H,3H) values. In this dataset, some of the patients have taken the GCT test and some of them have taken the OGTT test.

I used a calculated field to find the GDM and NON-GDM patients. The result is shown in the above picture. Here

I have taken only the GDM patients and further analyzed their other biomarkers and what are the things that cause GDM.

Causes of GDM: Demographics

Demographics like ethnicity, age, BMI, smoking , alcohol, obesity and overweight play a role in causing gestational diabetes.

Other factors lead to GDM:

Here I have taken a few biomarkers and analyzed their changes during the GDM. There is a change in WCC values after having GDM.HB level also increased during GDM. Platelet values are dropped in GDM. Many patients have abnormal creatinine values and half of the patients have Abnormal HBA1C values.

Impact of GDM:

GDM has many impacts on patients and their babies. GDM leads to

1. overweight babies,

2. birth injuries,

3. stillbirth,

4. caesarean,

5. shoulder dystocia,

6. other nerve damage, etc.

How to control GDM?:

1. Diet is an important thing to controlling GDM

2. Limit our sugar intake

3. Physical activities

4. Maintain healthy weight

5. Include fiber in the diet, etc

we all are known Prevention is better than cure, eat healthily and stay healthy!

Thank you for reading my blog!