Gestational diabetes is one of the most common diseases that women are at risk of developing during and after pregnancy. The condition is termed diabetes mellitus, or type 2 diabetes, after childbirth. Researchers from Germany have now found a way to determine the chances of post-childbirth women developing diabetes mellitus.

Scientists at the Institute of Diabetes Research (IDF) in Helmhotz Zentrum Munchen, Germany, analysed 257 cases of gestational diabetes recorded between 1989 and 1999 and followed up for 20 years post delivery. From the group, 110 women were found to have developed gestational diabetes that continued post-childbirth. Anette-Gabriele Ziegler, director of IDF, led the research team that traced the genesis of the disease using lab tests.

Meike Kohler, the first author on the study, said, “Body mass index (BMI) and genetic predisposition both play a role in our calculation, as does the question of whether the mother breastfed her baby and whether her gestational diabetes had to be treated with insulin,” reports TechTimes.

A “point system” was created by the researchers, enabling them to calculate the risk of a woman developing type 2 diabetes post-pregnancy. Women who had lower risk scores had 11 per cent chances of developing diabetes in five years after childbirth. Medium-risk women had 29 to 64 per cent chances. Women with high-risk carried 80 per cent chances of developing gestational diabetes.

In January 2015, a US government backed panel had recommended that women test for gestational diabetes mellitus after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The new test could be employed soon in a clinical setting to determine post-childbirth possibility of diabetes type 2, noted Ziegler. It would help both patients and doctors in understanding diabetes type 2 risk, in order to develop personalised checks to suit the patient.

The study has been published in Acta Diabetologica.

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