Background-Aim

Any degree of glucose intolerance that is initially diagnosed during pregnancy is known as gestational diabetes (GDM). There is a little data available on prevalence of thyroid disorders in patients affected by gestational diabetes. We therefore investigated presence of aberrant thyroid hormone levels and thyroid antibodies, which will add to the existing body of knowledge. This study intends to determine thyroid dysfunction in women with gestational diabetes mellitus compared to healthy

Methods

In this case-control study, 67 women with gestational diabetes mellitus and 67 non diabetic healthy pregnant women referred to TUTH were selected using the convenience sampling method, and their serum levels of free T3, free T4, TSH, Anti-TPO, TG, TGA, and TRAb were determined and compared.

Results

There was a significant difference between the GDM group (13.4 %) and the control group (1.5 %) in terms of the prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism (p = 0.018). The frequency of thyroid autoantibodies was high in GDM group (43.3 %) than control group (3 %). Among these antibodies, anti-TPO was more prevalent, which was positive in 31.3 % of women with GDM and 1.5 % of healthy pregnant women (P =  < 0.001). A significant positive correlation was found between GCT and anti-TPO (r = 0.258,

Conclusions

Overall, it can be inferred that gestational diabetes is associated with subclinical hypothyroidism and thyroid autoantibodies. The presence of thyroid autoimmune antibodies may predict the risk for development of GDM in pregnant women. Therefore, it may be reasonable to perform thyroid function test with thyroid autoantibodies in routine protocol to assess the risk of developing GDM.




Sources - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0009898124004388