Serum chromium levels in gestational diabetes mellitus.

Objective: To measure serum chromium level in women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) from Chennai, South India.

Materials And Methods: Thirty women with gestational diabetes, 60 age matched controls.

Inclusion Criteria: Gestational age 22-28 weeks, age group 20-35 years.

Exclusion Criteria: Gestational age beyond 28 weeks, malnutrition or presence of infection. Serum chromium was measured using inductive couple plasma emission spectrometer.

Results: Serum chromium levels of women with GDM, 1.59+/-0.02 ng/ml (range: 0.16-4.0 ng/ml) were lower than in controls (4.58+/-0.62 ng/ml; range 0.82-5.33 ng/ml) (P < 0.001). However, there were no significant differences among cases and controls when subdivided by parity.

Conclusions: Women with GDM from a South Indian city had lower levels of serum chromium compared to pregnant women without GDM. Studies may be done whether chromium supplementation is useful in this group of women.