A recent study published in Diabetes Care suggests that women with high levels of abdominal fat on their first trimester of pregnancy have more chances of developing diabetes later in their pregnancy as told in Science Daily.
"This study highlights the potential to screen patients in their early stages of pregnancy, and use abdominal fat to predict the development of diabetes," said Leanne De Souza, a PhD candidate in obstetrics and gynecology at St. Michael's Hospital and lead author of the study.
Taking pictures during routine clinical visits using ultrasound can help determine women with high levels of abdominal fat in early pregnancy, noted Leanne De Souza.
Pregnant women on their second or third trimester are screened by looking at person's chances for diabetes along with their age, ethnicity, body mass index, family history of diabetes and the results of a glucose challenge test.
"The problem with those risk factors is that they don't really tell us who's at a high risk of diabetes," said De Souza. "Up to 60 per cent of women will start their pregnancy overweight, many women are having children at an older age, and most people have a family member with Type 2 diabetes, so traditional risk factors are starting to apply to more and more people, which prevent us from properly identifying those at a high risk."
Visceral fat builds up between and around internal organs such as the stomach and intestines, and produces toxins that make the body resistant to insulin. Subcutaneous fat is found just beneath the skin, and total fat is the combination of visceral and subcutaneous fat.
For this study, the team observed nearly 500 women between 18 and 42 years old. Researchers measured the visceral fat, subcutaneous fat and total fat in the abdominal region with the aid of an ultrasound scan at 11 to 14 weeks' gestation. Visceral fat builds up between and around internal organs such as the stomach and intestines and produces toxins that make the body resistant to insulin. Subcutaneous fat is found just beneath the skin, and total fat is the combination of visceral and subcutaneous fat.
Prior studies have shown that visceral fat can be a risk factor for developing diabetes, this study claimed that both visceral and total abdominal fat are predictors of developing gestational diabetes.
Research cited earlier suggested that up to 20 to 50 percent of the women who developed gestational diabetes went on to develop Type 2 diabetes within five years after their pregnancy.
"Screening patients for visceral and total fat in their early stages of pregnancy could eventually be used to help doctors and health practitioners identify those at increased risk of gestational diabetes," said De Souza. "Prevention efforts could involve promoting a healthy diet and lifestyle, and helping patients avoid excess abdominal weight gain."
