News: Daily glucose self-monitoring may reduce macrosomia risk

Daily glucose self-monitoring in women with diet-treated gestational diabetes lowers the threat of delivering an oversized infant, when compared to routine weekly monitoring, according to research published in the June issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

J. Seth Hawkins, MD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues analyzed data from 990 women with diet-treated gestational diabetes who delivered between 1991 and 2001. Women who self-monitored their blood glucose four times daily were compared with those who underwent weekly routine office testing of their blood glucose.

The researchers found that the women in the daily self-monitoring group were less likely to have macrosomic infants-defined as 4,000 g or more-than the women in the weekly office-monitoring group (21.9% vs. 29.5%). They were also less likely to have large-for-gestational-age infants (23.1% vs. 34.4%). The authors further note that the daily self-monitoring group gained significantly less weight. However, they had higher average fasting glucose levels, and improvement of these values was similar between the groups.

Hawkins JS, Casey BM, Lo J, et al. Weekly compared with daily blood glucose monitoring in women with diet-treated gestational diabetes. Obstet Gynecol. 2009;113:1307-1312.