[Diabetes and pregnancy. Past, present, and future].

After the discovery of insulin and during almost an half of a century, physicians and researchers apply their efforts in a better knowledge to reduce the perinatal mortality of the offspring of the diabetic mother. The optimisation of glucose control--the main key of the management of diabetic pregnancy--and the new methods of fetal and neonatal surveillance allowed that in the end of XX century the perinatal mortality were close to the general population. Nevertheless the perinatal morbidity is still elevated.

Insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion in lean and obese normal pregnant women.

An insulin-modified frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test with minimal model analysis was performed in normal pregnant women between 28-32 weeks of gestation, to assess insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion. Insulin sensitivity in the pregnant group (no. 26) was reduced to approximately 50% that of nonpregnant group (no.

Delivery in diabetic pregnancy.

Two hundred and twenty deliveries of diabetic pregnant women, occurring from 1990-1994 were studied: 186 gestational (GDM) and 34 pregestational diabetes (PGDM). Women who delivered during the year of 1994 were considered as control population (3615 births). Mode of delivery, planned delivery, delivery's gestational age, shoulder dystocia, macrosomia and large for gestational age (LGA) were investigated.

[Pregnancy and endocrinopathy. Activity, pathology and results at the outpatient obstetrics-endocrinology clinics of the University of Coimbra Hospitals--January 1980 through December 1988].

The authors have elaborated a statistic survey about the pregnant women with endocrinopathies, that they have examined in the outpatient clinic from January of 1980 to December of 1988. Three hundred and twenty four women were examined in an amount of 2152 (two thousand one hundred and fifty two) observations. The incidence for 100 births was 0.