[Distribution of adipose tissue and insulin serum levels in women with gestational diabetes].

Obesity has been mentioned as a major risk factor to develop gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). In this work the main purpose was to compare the distribution of body fat tissue and insulin serum levels in obese women suffering GDM. Twenty obese pregnant patients, ten with GDM and ten non-diabetic control subjects were selected. To define the body fat distribution the following anthropometric indexes were performed: subscapular/triceps skinfold index (STI) during pregnancy (24-28 weeks) and STI plus waist/hip ratio (WHR) in postpartum (6 weeks). The two obese groups were evaluated through an oral glucose tolerance test, taking blood at 0, 60, 120 and 180 minutes; after centrifugation glucose serum levels were measured immediately by the glucose oxidase technique and the rest of the sample was kept frozen at -20 degrees C until insulin determinations by radioimmunoassay. The ten patients with GDM presented upper body fat, segment distribution, while among those without GDM, only six had this last feature and four were found with lower body fat segment distribution (p < 0.047). Insulin serum levels in GDM group were higher than in women without GDM (p < 0.01). The STI during and after pregnancy correlated positively (r = 0.77, p < 0.00003) and also with WHR (r = 0.61, p < 0.0001). There was correlation between STI and WHR both measured in postpartum (r = 0.52, p < 0.0007).