January - March 2017, Volume 13, Issue 1

Yadav A, Saini V, Kataria M, Jain A

Need of Iron Supplementation in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Acta Endo (Buc) 2017, 13 (1): 126-128
doi: 10.4183/aeb.2017.126

Objective. Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) increases the foetal morbidity and mortality and there is also risk of development of type II diabetes for the mother. In pregnancy iron supplementations are given to all the females in India. Data are not available on the relationship between serum ferritin and GDM in Indian populations. Material & Methods. Case control study was done on 90 women (30 GDM patients approx 28 weeks of gestation and 60 control subjects without GDM) referred to the tertiary care hospital at New Delhi. Ferritin was analysed by ELISA kit. They were analyzed for the correlation of ferritin with blood glucose in GDM patients. Results. On comparison with blood glucose the levels of ferritin were statistically significantly high in GDM cases as compared to controls (p value 0.008). There was a negative correlation of ferritin with blood glucose level (r value -0.039, p value 0.794). Discussion. Pregnancy is an equivalent of an inflammatory state and the high levels of ferritin can help in determining the need of iron supplementation given in pregnant females. Women who had high serum ferritin had the greatest risk of GDM. Conclusion. This study suggests a possible link between elevated serum ferritin and low-grade inflammation. Further studies in larger populations are required to establish this study.

Keywords: gestational diabetes mellitus, ferritin

Correspondence: Amita Yadav MD, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Department of Biochemistry, New Delhi, India, E-mail: dramita.md@gmail.com