Screening for gestation diabetes is recommended to all pregnant women. The first gestation diabetes screening test was anticipated in 1973 and comprised of 1-h 50 gm oral glucose tolerance trial (Mpondo et al., 2015, Pg. 42). Some plans commend universal testing while others exempted individuals considered as low-risk. According to the available evidence, universal testing enhances pregnancy results when equated to selective detection. Nevertheless, some researchers claim screening of females established on medical characteristics enables more effective careful testing for gestation diabetes. Low-risk patients comprise of women having features such as healthy body weight, no history of anomalous glucose absorption or obstetric outcomes, less than twenty-five years, no history of diabetes in the family or not coming from ethnicity with high diabetes occurrence. Even though some specialists commend against routine screening of low-risk individuals, selective detection might miss about 4% of gestation diabetes patients.

Besides, pregnant women having factors which confer GDM high risk should be immediately screened for the disease especially during the first antenatal visit. When the results are negative, pregnant women need retesting at the beginning of the third trimester between 24-28 gestation weeks. Consequently, ladies considered to be an average risk should be screened between 24/28 gestation weeks. For instance, implementation of universal screening requires patients without GDM recognized risk factors to experience a 1-h glucose trial test at 24-28 pregnancy weeks (Mpondo et al., 2015, Pg. 42). Else, postprandial plasma glucose and fasting plasma glucose are not recommended for screening because they have been seen to have low sensitivity.

Generally, there are two approaches for evaluating GDM, one-step approach and two-step technique. First, the one-step procedure involves conducting diagnosis oral glucose tolerance trial without preceding serum glucose or plasma testing and might be expensive for high-risk individuals. Else, the two-step method involves original testing of the glucose trial test for measuring the plasma absorption 1h after a 50-gm oral glucose load (Mpondo et al., 2015, Pg. 42). Lastly, the diagnostic oral glucose trial test is done to ladies having plasma concentration standards exceeding the glucose challenge test verge.

List of Reference

Mpondo, B.C., Ernest, A. and Dee, H.E., 2015. Gestational diabetes mellitus: challenges in diagnosis and management. Journal of Diabetes & Metabolic Disorders, 14(1), p.42.