Abstract
The present generation of women of childbearing age more frequently suffer from overweight, obesity, initial as well as fully established metabolic syndrome, which together with postponing motherhood until the third decade in life plays an important role in the increasing incidence of gestational diabetes (GDM) that currently affects about 1/5 of pregnant women. However the causal link between diabetes during pregnancy and metabolic diseases in the whole population is mutual.
By way of epigenetic changes, maternal diabetes unfavourably programmes metabolism of the offspring, who tend to transfer the disorder to the next generations. Gestational diabetes is therefore an important link fitting into the accumulation curve of the incidence of overweight, obesity, metabolic syndrome and consequently also T2DM among the whole population.
Genetic as well as epigenetic factors play a great role in the GDM pathogenesis, which is shown by the fact that this complication also affects women with normal BMI. When it comes to diagnosing GDM, we will need to manage also in future with establishing fasting glycemia and glycemia following glucose challenge (OGTT) that may include a considerable degree of measurement inaccuracy.
It is therefore necessary to observe pre-analytical and analytical conditions of measurements in order to obtain a reliable result. It is a positive sign that the Czech professional associations have adopted new international criteria for diagnosing GDM which, as opposed to those valid earlier, better reflect the risk of pregnancy-related and perinatal complications.