Management of gestational diabetes: pharmacologic treatment options and glycemic control

From Standard of Care to Emerging Innovations: Navigating the Evolution of Pharmacological Treatment of Gestational Diabetes

The incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) continues to increase in the United States and globally. While the first-line treatment of GDM remains diet and exercise, 30% of patients with GDM will require pharmacotherapy. However, many controversies remain over the specific glycemic threshold values at which pharmacotherapy should be started, how intensified the therapy should be, and whether oral agents are effective in GDM and remain safe for long-term offspring health. This review will summarize recently completed and ongoing trials focused on GDM pharmacotherapy, including those examining different glycemic thresholds to initiate therapy and treatment intensity. KEY POINTS: · The incidence of GDM continues to increase in the United States and globally.. · While the first-line treatment of GDM remains diet, 30% of patients require pharmacotherapy.. · Controversies remain over the specific glycemic threshold values at which pharmacotherapy is needed.. · Another controversy is how tightly to control GDM.. · Additional controversies are the safety of metformin and incretins in terms of offspring's long-term health..

Association of Glyburide and Subcutaneous Insulin With Perinatal Complications Among Women With Gestational Diabetes

IMPORTANCE

Nearly 30% of individuals with gestational diabetes (GDM) do not achieve glycemic control with lifestyle modification alone and require medication treatment. Oral agents, such as glyburide, have several advantages over insulin for the treatment of GDM, including greater patient acceptance; however, the effectiveness of glyburide for the treatment of GDM remains controversial.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the perinatal and neonatal outcomes associated with glyburide vs insulin using causal inference methods in a clinical setting with information on glycemic control.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

The population-based cohort study included patients with GDM who required medication treatment from 2007 to 2017 in Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Machine learning and rigorous casual inference methods with time-varying exposures were used to evaluate associations of exposure to glyburide vs insulin with perinatal outcomes. Data analysis was conducted from March 2018 to July 2017.

EXPOSURES

Time-varying exposure to glyburide vs insulin during pregnancy.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Outcomes evaluated separately included neonatal hypoglycemia, jaundice, shoulder dystocia, respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission, size-for-gestational age, and cesarean delivery. Inverse probability weighting (IPW) estimation was used to separately compare perinatal outcomes between those initiating glyburide and insulin. This approach was combined with Super Learning for propensity score estimation to account for both baseline and time-dependent confounding in both per-protocol (primary) and intention-to-treat (secondary) analyses to evaluate sustained exposure to the same therapy.

RESULTS

From 2007 to 2017, 11 321 patients with GDM (mean [SD] age, 32.9 [4.9] years) initiated glyburide or insulin during pregnancy. In multivariate models, the risk of neonatal respiratory distress was 2.03 (95% CI, 0.13-3.92) per 100 births lower and the risk of NICU admission was 3.32 (95% CI, 0.20-6.45) per 100 births lower after continuous exposure to glyburide compared with insulin. There were no statistically significant differences in glyburide vs insulin initiation in risk for neonatal hypoglycemia (0.85 [95% CI, -1.17 to 2.86] per 100 births), jaundice (0.02 [95% CI, -1.46 to 1.51] per 100 births), shoulder dystocia (-1.05 [95% CI, -2.71 to 0.62] per 100 births), or large-for-gestational age categories (-2.75 [95% CI, -6.31 to 0.80] per 100 births).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Using data from a clinical setting and contemporary causal inference methods, our findings do not provide evidence of a difference in the outcomes examined between patients with GDM initiating glyburide compared with those initiating insulin.

Gender-specific care of diabetes

Diabetic men have benefited in the last 30 years from a significant improvement in total and cardiovascular mortality, whereas diabetic women have had no improvement at all. Moreover, recent research focused on the role of sex hormones in glucose homeostasis, and might account for different pathophysiologic mechanisms in the development of diabetes-related complications. Thus, care of diabetic women is a challenge that requires particular attention. The available data regarding gender-specific care of diabetes mellitus are uneven, rich in some domains but very poor in others. The large prospective trials performed in the last 20 years have assumed that the natural history of diabetes mellitus in men and women, as well as the efficiency of glucose-lowering therapies and management of hyperglycemic-related complications, could be attributable without distinction to men and women. We propose in this paper to analyze the published medical literature according to the specific management of diabetes mellitus in women, and to try to distinguish some particular features. We found important distinctions between diabetic men and women regarding the patterns of abnormalities of glucose regulation, epidemiology, development of diabetes-related complications, ischemic heart disease, morbidity and mortality, impact of cardiovascular risk factors, development of the metabolic syndrome, depression and osteoporosis, as well as the impact of lifestyle modifications or primary and secondary preventions on cardiovascular risk factors, and finally medical therapeutics. Moreover, special considerations were given to some particular aspects of the medical life in diabetic women, such as the features of gestational diabetes mellitus and the management of pregnancy in pregestational diabetic women, use of contraception, hormone-replacement therapy and polycystic ovary syndrome.

Oral Hypoglycemic Glibenclamide: Can it be a Substitute to Insulin in the Management of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus? A Comparative Study

Introduction

Gestational diabetes is a common medical disorder in pregnancy. So long, it has been usually treated by insulin. Now it has been found that oral glibenclamide can be used instead of insulin with similar glycemic control and without any adverse maternal and fetal effect.

Methods

A comparative study between oral glibenclamide and insulin for the management of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) was conducted. It was a prospective randomized study and patients attending the antenatal clinic were screened with 75 gm oral glucose between 20 to 28 weeks and GDM was diagnosed based on WHO criteria of 2 hours blood glucose ≥140 mg/dl. Women with gestational diabetes were given medical nutritional therapy (MNT) for 2 weeks. Out of this, 60 women did not achieve the target blood glucose. The goal of treatment was maintenance of mean plasma glucose (MPG) of about 105 mg%. For this the fasting plasma glucose should be around 90 mg/dl and postprandial peaks around 120 mg/dl. Patients were randomly assigned to receive glibenclamide (group A, n = 30) or insulin (group B, n = 30). In group A, glibenclamide was given 2.5 mg orally in morning and doses were increased weekly by 2.5 mg up to a maximum of 20 mg and doses >7.5 mg were given in two divided doses. In group B, insulin 0.7 units per kilogram of body weight at admission was given subcutaneously three times daily and increased weekly as necessary. Self monitoring of blood glucose with glucometer was done. Blood glucose was also measured from the laboratory every week. Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) was measured before initiation of therapy and repeated in the third trimester before confinement. Terminations of pregnancy in both the groups were done between 37 and 38 weeks. The infant birth weight, blood glucose and serum bilirubin were also recorded in all cases.

Results

The present study showed that the two groups had similar glycemic status (fasting blood sugar in group A was 103.5 ± 14.62 mg/dl and postprandial blood sugar was 184.1 ± 20.46 mg/dl whereas in group B it was109.3 ± 19.63 mg/dl and 194.3 ± 18.47mg/dl) at the time of entry into the study. The two groups also showed similar levels of glycemic control just before confinement (fasting blood sugar in group A was 88.23 ± 6.55 mg/ dl and postprandial blood sugar was 122.7 ± 10.3 mg/dl whereas in group B it was 88.17 ± mg/dl and 128 ± 12.38 mg/dl) and there was no significant statistical difference in the two groups (p > 0.05). The perinatal outcomes in both the groups were also nearly same. There was no significant difference in birth weight, blood sugar level of neonates and complications between the two groups. There was no case of macrosomia in the two groups and the number of infants large for gestational age (LGA) was four in group A and two in group B. Hypoglycemia in newborn was slightly higher in the group A compared to group B (4 and 3 respectively).

Conclusion

From our study, it is evident that the use of oral agents is a pragmatic alternative to insulin therapy in cases of gestational diabetes because of similar glycemic control, ease of administration and better patient compliance due to noninvasive treatment.

How to cite this article

Mukhopadhyay P, Bag TS, Kyal A, Saha DP, Khalid N. Oral Hypoglycemic Glibenclamide: Can it be a Substitute to Insulin in the Management of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus? A Comparative Study. J South Asian Feder Obst Gynae 2012;4(1):28-31.

Estudo retrospectivo das implicações maternas, fetais e perinatais em mulheres portadoras de diabetes, em 20 anos de acompanhamento no Hospital Escola da Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro

OBJETIVOS: Avaliar implicações do diabetes melito (DM) na morbimortalidade materno-fetal, segundo experiência da Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro. MATERIAIS E METODOS: Procedeu-se à análise retrospectiva dos prontuários de gestantes diabéticas assistidas entre 1990 e 2009 focando dados e complicações maternas e neonatais. RESULTADOS: A última gestação de 93 diabéticas foi avaliada, sendo 34 com DM tipo 1, em que se observou maior ocorrência de tocotrauma (p = 0,023) e retinopatia (p = 0,023). Vinte e uma pacientes tinham DM tipo 2; suas necessidades de insulina aumentaram progressivamente (p < 0,01) e observou-se maior prevalência de tabagismo (p = 0,004). Trinta e oito tiveram diabetes gestacional e iniciaram acompanhamento do diabetes em idade gestacional mais tardia (p < 0,001), tiveram mais antecedentes de macrossomia fetal (p = 0,028) e maior prevalência de fatores de risco cardiovascular. CONCLUSÕES: Não obstante melhora do controle glicêmico durante a gestação, nenhum dos grupos atingiu alvos glicêmicos ideais. Ainda assim, a maioria das gestações em diabéticas, conduzidas em nosso meio, evoluiu favoravelmente.

Gender-specific care of diabetes mellitus: particular considerations in the management of diabetic women

In the past 30 years, the all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality rates for women with diabetes mellitus (DM), in contrast to men, have not declined. Furthermore, the difference between all-cause mortality rates in women with DM and those without DM has more than doubled. This urgently needs addressing. This review will analyse published medical literature relating to the specific management of DM in women and try to identify areas where gender affects care. We have identified specific gender differences in the pathophysiology of glucose homeostasis disorder, diabetes-related complications and any female gender-specific features of women with diabetes, such as contraception and the menopause. These gender-specific features of DM may offer a route to improved care for women and new therapeutic possibilities.

Management of obesity in GDM: old habits die hard

The number of people worldwide who are obese and diabetic has increased in all age and ethnic groups. Obesity and diabetes have implications for all aspects of maternal/fetal health and outcome during pregnancy with short and long-term ramifications. Liberal pharmacological therapy, relative weight gain restriction in comparison to non-obese diabetic women, improved lifestyle changes, and achievement of targeted levels of glycemic control can mitigate pregnancy complications and result in improved pregnancy outcome.

Safety of glyburide for gestational diabetes: a meta-analysis of pregnancy outcomes

BACKGROUND

Gestational diabetes mellitus affects approximately 4% of all pregnancies. As with other oral hypoglycemics, the use of glyburide in pregnancy has been limited by fears of neonatal hypoglycemia following fetal exposure. Recent experimental and clinical studies have suggested, however, that the drug is not detectable in umbilical blood.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the safety of glyburide use in pregnancy in the treatment of gestational diabetes compared with insulin therapy by analyzing all available human studies.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of all randomized and cohort studies that reported on the perinatal complications among women with gestational diabetes who received glyburide versus insulin. MEDLINE, EMBASE, and biological abstracts using BIOSIS previews were searched from inception of these databases through October 2006. The following outcomes were included: macrosomia, birthweight, gestational age, neonatal hypoglycemia, and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. Odds ratios were calculated by the random effects method using Cochrane's Review Manager version 4.3.

RESULTS

Nine studies met the inclusion criteria, including a total of 745 glyburideexposed pregnancies and 637 insulin-exposed pregnancies, with each adverse perinatal outcome reported by 4-7 studies. The use of glyburide was not associated with risk of macrosomia (OR 1.07; 95% CI 0.78 to 1.47), differences in birth weight (weighted mean difference [WMD] OR 20.46 g; 95% CI -34.90 to 75.82), rate of large for gestational age (OR 1.04; 95% CI 0.75 to 1.43), differences in gestational age at birth (WMD 0.02 wk; 95% CI -0.23 to 0.26), ICU admission (OR 0.95; 95% CI 0.43 to 2.09), or increased risk of neonatal hypoglycemia (OR 1.24; 95% CI 0.91 to 1.69).

CONCLUSIONS

The data shown here do not suggest increased perinatal risks with glyburide. The effectiveness and safety of glyburide require further evaluation, as most studies to date were not randomized.

Oral anti-hyperglycemic agents for the management of gestational diabetes mellitus

The purpose of this review is to provide a brief overview for understanding the management guidelines of gestational diabetes. The rationale for the use of oral antidiabetic drugs is provided based on validation by appropriately conducted research trials. Concerns over teratogenicity due to possible placental transfer, neonatal and maternal outcome, and basic pharmacologic benefits are addressed.