Background: Much evidence has shown that pregnancies in women with preexisting diabetes are affected by an increased risk of maternal and fetal adverse outcomes, probably linked to poor glycemic control. Despite great progress in medical care, the rate of stillbirths remains much higher in diabetes patients than in the general population. Recent technological advances in the field of glucose monitoring and noninvasive fetal heart rate monitoring made it possible to observe the fetal-maternal dependencies in a continuous manner.
Subjects and methods: Fourteen type 1 diabetes patients were involved into the study and fitted with a blinded continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) recorder. Fetal electrocardiogram data were recorded using the Monica AN24™ device (Monica Healthcare Ltd., Nottingham, United Kingdom), the recordings of which were matched with CGM data. Statistical analysis was performed using a generalized mixed-effect logistic regression to account for individual factors.
Results: The mean number of paired data points per patient was 254±106, representing an observation period of 21.2±8.8 h. Mean glycemia equaled 5.64±0.68 mmol/L, and mean fetal heart rate was 135±6 beats/min. Higher glycemia correlated with fetal heart rate (R=0.32; P<0.0001) and was associated with higher odds of the fetus developing small accelerations (odds ratio=1.05; 95% confidence interval, 1.00-1.10; P=0.04).
Conclusions: Elevated maternal glycemia of mothers with diabetes is associated with accelerations of fetal heart rate.