Thyroid Dysfunction and Increased Risk of Developing Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

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