Background: Studies in the general population have advocated glycated albumin (GA) as a useful alternative to glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) under conditions wherein the latter does not reflect glycaemic status accurately. There are few studies in other populations, especially in pregnant women. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the clinical utility of GA in the diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).
Materials and methods: This diagnostic test accuracy study was performed in 149 Brazilian women at 24-28 weeks of gestation referred for an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in a tertiary university hospital. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were used to access the performance of GA and HbA1c in the diagnosis of GDM by the reference OGTT.
Results: GDM by OGTT (IADPSG criteria) was detected in 18.8% of participants. According to ROC analysis, the area under the curve (AUC) for GA was 0.531 (95% CI: 0.405-0.658, p = 0.065) lower than that for HbA1c [0.743 (95% CI: 0.636-0.849; p ≤ 0.001] for the detection of GDM (p = 0.004). The equilibrium cut-off value for GA was 12.6%; sensitivity and specificity in this cut-off point were 53.6% and 54.2%, respectively.
Conclusions: GA at 24-28 weeks of gestation does not have ability to correctly discriminate those with and without GDM. In summary, the lack of sensitivity found in our results do not support the solely use of GA in the diagnosis of GDM.
Keywords: Diagnostic accuracy; Gestational diabetes mellitus; Glycated albumin; HbA1c; Oral glucose tolerance test.