Identifying diabetes in pregnancy is a vital part of antenatal care.

A new study has identified that NICE guidance for the diagnosis of gestational diabetes (GDM) may miss up to 4000 women at risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes due to high blood sugar levels.

The research, which was carried out in the Institute of Metabolic Science and published in the journal Diabetologia, used anonymised data from 25543 women who delivered at the Rosie hospital in 2004-2008. Dr Claire Meek (Clinical Biochemistry) and her coauthors assessed outcomes for women who tested positive for the World Health Organisation 2013 criteria in comparison to the NICE 2015 criteria.

They found that the NICE criteria identified fewer women to have gestational diabetes, but missed a group of women who were at high risk of delivering a high birthweight infant, having a Caesarean section or developing polyhydramnios, complications which might have been prevented with appropriate identification and treatment.

The authors hope that their work will be used to inform the development of future guidelines.