Short Communication

Blood glucose levels of pregnant women at different gestation periods in Aba area of Abia State of Nigeria

R. N. Nwaoguikpe¹ and A. A. Uwakwe²*

¹Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria.

²Department of Biochemistry, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: uwadik2006@yahoo.co.uk.

Accepted 1 June, 2007.

   Abstract

Blood glucose levels of pregnant and non-pregnant women were assayed at different gestation periods. The volunteers were divided into four groups based on certain criteria: Group A served as control and consisted of 150 women who were not pregnant; Group B consisted of 120 women who were at the first trimester of pregnancy; Group C consisting of 120 pregnant women at their second trimester of pregnancy; and Group D consisted of 150 volunteers who were at the third trimester of pregnancy. The mean blood glucose levels of the four groups were as follows: Group A, 6.04 mmol/L; Group B, 7.6 mmol/L; Group C, 7.4 mmol/L; and Group D, 11.0 mmol/L. The pregnant volunteers were regrouped into A2, B2, C2 and D2 based on their ages. Group A2 falls within the age group 19 - 24 years, Group B2 25 - 30 years, Group C2 31 - 36 years and Group D2, 37 - 42 years. Their mean blood glucose levels were 7.0, 8.4, 8.5 and 7.5 mmol/L, respectively. It was observed that elevated blood glucose level occurred after the second pregnancy reaching its peak after the 6^th pregnancy. It can be seen that pregnancy induces gestational diabetes on susceptible patients and this occurs mostly at the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.

Key words: Blood, diabetes-mellitus, gestation, glucose, pregnant-women.