Gestational diabetes test may predict Type 2 diabetes among women

TEL AVIV, Israel A new Tel Aviv University study found a test used to diagnose gestational diabetes in women could be a key indicator to diagnosing Type 2 diabetes.

The study -- led by Gabriel Chodick of Tel Aviv University's department of epidemiology and preventive medicine at the Sackler faculty of medicine -- found that women who "failed" the glucose challenge test, a series of four blood tests conducted over a single four-hour period, have a higher chance of developing adult onset diabetes later in life. Chodick and colleagues collected data on more than 185,000 women in Israel who took the glucose challenge test, then acquired information from the nation's health registry as to what percentage of these women contracted diabetes later in life.

Chodick noted that nearly half of the women who failed all four parts of the four-part tests, demonstrating an elevated blood sugar level, developed Type 2 diabetes within 10 years. Those who failed 3-of-the-4 tests had a 20% overall chance of developing the disease within the same period. "This is the first-ever study to show the long-term health of those who failed the glucose challenge test," Chodick said.

Gestational diabetes is developed among women while they are about 28 weeks pregnant or later, when the body is not able to make and use all the insulin it needs for pregnancy.