From the Journals

Seek safe strategies to diagnose gestational diabetes during pandemic

Publish date: May 27, 2020
By
Heidi Splete

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Provide the best possible care

A major concern against the backdrop of COVID-19 is ensuring long-term health while urgent care is – understandably so – being prioritized over preventive care. We can already see the impact that the decrease in primary care has had: Rates of childhood vaccination appear to have dropped; the cancellation or indefinite delay of elective medical procedures has meant a reduction in preventive cancer screenings, such as colonoscopies and mammograms; and concerns about COVID-19 may be keeping those experiencing cardiac events from seeking emergency care.

However, an outcropping of the coronavirus pandemic is an ingenuity to adapt to our new “normal.” Medical licenses have been recognized across state lines to allow much-needed professionals to practice in the hardest-hit areas. Doctors retrofitted a sleep apnea machine to be used as a makeshift ventilator. Those in the wearable device market now have a greater onus to deliver on quality, utility, security, and accuracy.

Obstetricians have had to dramatically change delivery of ante-, intra- and postpartum care. The recent commentary by Dr. McIntyre and Dr. Moses focuses on one particular area of concern: screening, diagnosis, and management of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

Screening and diagnosis are mainstays to reduce the adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes of diabetes in pregnancy. Although there is no universally accepted approach to evaluating GDM, all current methods utilize an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), which requires significant time spent in a clinical office setting, thus increasing risk for COVID-19 exposure.

Several countries have adopted modified GDM criteria within the last months. At the time of this writing, the United States has not. Although not testing women for GDM, which is what Dr. McIntyre and Dr. Moses point out may be happening in countries with modified guidelines, seems questionable, perhaps we should think differently about our approach.

More than 20 years ago, it was reported that jelly beans could be used as an alternative to the 50-g GDM screening test (Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1999 Nov;181[5 Pt 1]:1154‐7; Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1995 Dec;173[6]:1889‐92); more recently, candy twists were used with similar results (Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2015 Apr;212[4]:522.e1-5). In addition, a number of articles have reported on the utility of capillary whole blood glucose measurements to screen for GDM in developing and resource-limited countries (Diabetes Technol Ther. 2011;13[5]:586‐91; Acta Diabetol. 2016 Feb;53[1]:91‐7; Diabetes Technol Ther. 2012 Feb;14[2]:131-4). Therefore, rather than forgo GDM screening, women could self-administer a jelly bean test at home, measure blood sugar with a glucometer, and depending on the results, have an OGTT. Importantly, this would allow ob.gyns. to maintain medical standards while managing patients via telemedicine.

We have evidence that GDM can establish poor health for generations. We know that people with underlying conditions have greater morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases. We recognize that accurate screening and diagnosis is the key to prevention and management. Rather than accept a “least worst” scenario, as Dr. McIntyre and Dr. Moses state, we must find ways to provide the best possible care under the current circumstances.

E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, who specializes in maternal-fetal medicine, is executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland, as well as the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He said he had no relevant financial disclosures. He is a member of the Ob.Gyn. News editorial advisory board.


 

Clinicians and pregnant women are less likely to prescribe and undergo the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) to diagnose gestational diabetes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a review by H. David McIntyre, MD, of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, and Robert G. Moses, MD, of Wollongong (Australia) Hospital.

National and international discussions of whether a one- or two-step test for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is optimal, and which women should be tested are ongoing, but the potential for exposure risks to COVID-19 are impacting the test process, they wrote in a commentary published in Diabetes Care.

“Any national or local guidelines should be developed with the primary aim of being protective for pregnant women and workable in the current health crisis,” they wrote.

Key concerns expressed by women and health care providers include the need for travel to be tested, the possible need for two visits, and the several hours spent in a potentially high-risk specimen collection center.

“Further, a GDM diagnosis generally involves additional health service visits for diabetes education, glucose monitoring review, and fetal ultrasonography, all of which carry exposure risks during a pandemic,” Dr. McIntyre and Dr. Moses noted.

Professional societies in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have issued guidance to clinicians for modifying GDM diagnoses criteria during the pandemic that aim to reduce the need for the oral glucose tolerance test both during and after pregnancy.

Pandemic guidelines for all three of these countries support the identification of GDM using early pregnancy hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) of at least 41 mmol/mol (5.9%).

Then, professionals in the United Kingdom recommend testing based on risk factors and diagnosing GDM based on any of these criteria: HbA1c of at least 39 mmol/mol (5.7%), fasting venous plasma glucose of at least 5.6 mmol/L (preferred), or random VPG of at least 9.0 mmol/L.

The revised testing pathway for Canada accepts an HbA1c of at least 39 mmol/mol (5.7%) and/or random VPG of at least 11.1 mmol/L.

“The revised Australian pathway does not include HbA1c but recommends a fasting VPG with progression to OGTT only if this result is 4.7-5.0 mmol/L,” Dr. McIntyre and Dr. Moses explained.

Overall, the revised guidelines for GDM testing will likely miss some women and only identify those with higher levels of hyperglycemia, the authors wrote. In addition, “the evidence base for these revised pathways is limited and that each alternative strategy should be evaluated over the course of the current pandemic.”

Validation of new testing strategies are needed, and the pandemic may provide and opportunity to adopt an alternative to the OGTT. The World Health Organization has not issued revised guidance for other methods of testing, but fasting VPG alone may be the simplest and most cost effective, at least for the short term, they noted.

“In this ‘new COVID world,’ GDM should not be ignored but pragmatically merits a lower priority than the avoidance of exposure to the COVID-19 virus,” although no single alternative strategy applies in all countries and situations, the authors concluded. Pragmatic measures and documentation of outcomes at the local level will offer the “least worst” solution while the pandemic continues.

The authors had no relevant financial disclosures.

SOURCE: McIntyre HD, Moses RG. Diabetes Care. 2020 May. doi: 10.2337/dci20-0026.

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