Antenatal screening for diabetes mellitus by random blood glucose sampling.

A system is described for screening an antenatal population for diabetes mellitus based upon random blood glucose sampling. Samples obtained from 186 healthy pregnant women at 28 weeks gestation provided a range of blood glucose concentrations after normal meals from which it was possible to derive two glucose values to define an upper limit of normality. The first, 6.4 mmol/l if within two hours of eating and the second, 5.8 mmol/l when taken more than two hours postprandial were prospectively applied to the screening of 763 consecutive antenatal patients. Ten women exceeding these limits were referred for an oral glucose tolerance test and three were found to have a diabetic response, an incidence of about four undiagnosed diabetic women per 1000 antenatal population.