Comparison of glucose polymer and glucose for screening and tolerance tests in pregnancy.

Forty-eight of 100 pregnant women received a 100-g (nonfasting) glucose screening test at about 28 weeks' gestation, followed by a 100-g glucose tolerance test. Another 52 received a 100-g (nonfasting) glucose polymer screening test followed by a 100-g glucose polymer tolerance test. Mean plasma glucose one hour after the glucose screening test was significantly lower than after the glucose polymer screening test. A further 178 women received a glucose polymer screening test and a glucose polymer tolerance test (230 in total). These women and the infants they delivered were studied to derive diagnostic criteria for the 100-g glucose polymer tolerance test by correlating maternal carbohydrate tolerance with indexes of neonatal metabolic performance, and to determine an adequate method of screening for carbohydrate intolerance of pregnancy (gestational diabetes). Diagnostic criteria similar to those of O'Sullivan and Mahan were also developed for the glucose polymer tolerance test. These values are up to 5% lower than those recommended by the National Diabetes Data Group (1979) for the 100-g glucose tolerance test.