Efficacy of FGM in Pregestational Diabetes

Plain-language summary

Diabetes is the most common metabolic disease complicating pregnancy, and the number of women in childbearing age facing this problem is rising worldwide. The clinical and social significance of pre-gestational diabetes has become an important issue in the area of public health because this disease can cause maternal complications and influence the development of the offspring during the pregnancy and later in life. Pregnancy in women with pregestational diabetes is indeed associated with adverse perinatal outcomes including large-for gestational- age infants (ranging from 48.8 to 62.5%), preterm delivery, and other perinatal complications. Large-for-gestational-age infants to mothers with diabetes are at increased risk for birth trauma, transient tachypnea, and neonatal hypoglycemia. For all these reasons, the medical costs and social burdens caused by this disease are problematic. The mainstay of managing diabetes during pregnancy is glucose monitoring. Conventionally, glucose monitoring is by self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) involving multiple pricks to the patients. The limitations of these pricks include pain and a point-in-time assessment without evaluation of the complete glycemic profile before making therapeutic adjustments. Introduction of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) by measuring interstitial fluid glucose has overcome the deficits in SMBG by providing an overview of the glycemic profiles in patients. In most recent years another promising tool became available: the Flash Glucose Monitoring (FGM) system. Unlike traditional sensor systems, its wired enzyme sensor is calibrated in the factory and therefore requires no user calibrations (fingerstick blood glucose measurements) during the 14 days of wear. Recent studies demonstrated that FGM is effective in reducing glucose fluctuations and preventing hypoglycemic events in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetic patients. No evidence is to date available on the efficacy of FGM on the reduction of the perinatal adverse outcomes during pregnancy in women with pre-gestational diabetes. The investigators propose to randomize a group of women with poorly controlled pregestational diabetes to receive SMBG (standard antenatal care) or FGM plus SMBG during pregnancy.

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